Dark Latin Groove Special Series: Famous Afro-Latin Americans: Raul Midón (born March 14, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from New Mexico, based in New York City. He combines his distinct voice, strumming, beats, and vocal mouth trumpet sounds to create a one-man performance. His unique style shows influence of virtually every musical genre which came before him, including jazz, blues, R&B, and folk. Midón was born prematurely in a rural hospital in Embudo, New Mexico to parents of Argentine and African American descent. His father was a folkloric dancer from Argentina. Midón and his twin brother Marco (now a NASA engineer) were blinded as infants after spending time in an incubator without adequate eye protection. The sounds of music became integral to Midóns life around age 4, when his father introduced him to the drum. Midón became an avid music lover and learned how to play the guitar while performing in rigorous educational programs, first at a school for the blind and then at an elite Santa Fe academy while completing his last two years of high school. Midón then attended the University of Miami, which he selected for its prestigious jazz curriculum. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1990. Midón resides in Laurel, Maryland now. Midón began his career as a session singer for numerous Latin recording artists including Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Julio Iglesias and Jose Feliciano. After touring with Shakira, he set aside this career to pursue a solo career and moved to New York City. In New York City he focused completely on his solo career with the exception of working with producer and renowned DJ Little Louie Vega. He wrote and recorded several songs including Cerca De Mi with Louie and his production team under the band name Elements of Life. Elements of Life, led by Louie Vega toured Europe, Japan and Australia in 2003/2004. During this time Midón was shopped to record labels in a unique manner. His management at the time arranged meetings where Midon would perform live in front of whichever music executive the meeting was with. This led to Midón being signed by Grammy Award-winning producer Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) to Manhattan Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records owned by EMI. In Mardins long career, Midón was his first signing of an artist. Mardin, along with his son, Joe, produced the critically acclaimed debut album of Midón entitled State of Mind.[1] Midón also did the song for the end credits Spike Lees 2004 LGBT film, She Hate Me, titled Adam n Eve n Eve. His song Everybody was featured in the soundtrack of the movie, The Peaceful Warrior starring Nick Nolte. Midóns album State of Mind was released on May 10, 2005. The album features a guest performance with Stevie Wonder, one of his idols, another one with Jason Mraz, and a song written in tribute to Donny Hathaway entitled Sittin In The Middle. Midón is an avid amateur radio enthusiast, and in this song he also incorporates his call sign (KB5ZOT) by using Morse code. The title track was released on 12 September 2006 as the free single of the week on the UK version of the iTunes Store. Midóns national television debut was on Late Show with David Letterman on June 28, 2005. He later went on to appear on other late night television shows in the U.S. and abroad. Herbie Hancock also featured Raul Midon on his compilation album Possibilities, which was released in 2006, performing his rendition of Princes I Just Called to Say I Love You. On July 24, 2007, a single named Pick Somebody Up was released on the iTunes Store in the new iTunes Plus format. Midón released the album A World Within A World on September 25, 2007.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 10:17:07 +0000