Raul Midon - Synthesis - International Music Network

You can hear the result on Midón's debut CD, "State of Mind," which comes out June 7.Mardin, and his co-producer son Joe, let no sonic filters get in the way of Midón's style. The CDsounds like it was cut live, but Midón says they worked on it meticulously.It's no surprise Mardin Sr. was sensitive to the singer's spare approach. He had produced severalrecords that greatly influenced Midón, especially some by the late soul singer-songwriter DonnyHathaway. Midón's voice has a similarly free range and rich core."I first heard Hathaway's 'A Song for You' and then kept discovering layers," Midón says. "Irealized I was on the same path."Midón listened to Hathaway's music for inspiration every morning before recording his ownalbum. He even dedicated one song to him, "Sittin' in the Middle," since it bears an uncannyresemblance to the unfiltered acoustic soul of Hathaway's early '70s work.Another song on the CD, "Expressions of Love," draws from early '70sStevie Wonder to such an extent that Midón asked his producer - as a joke - if they could getWonder to play on the song. "[Arif] said, 'Oh, yeah, I'll call him,' - just like that," the singerrecalls with a laugh.Midón and Wonder are also linked by the fact that both are blind. To boost his request, Midónwrote Wonder a note in Braille. A month had passed when, on the day before they mastered thefinal CD, Wonder sent in a harmonica part via the Internet.MOVED TO NEW YORKSuch connections still boggle Midón's mind. He had struggled for many years before his recentbreak. The musician, who will give his age only as "younger than Prince and older than Usher,"grew up in the small town of Embudo, near Taos, in New Mexico. His father is Argentinian, hismother was African-American.Midón has an identical twin brother who's also blind and now works as an engineer at NASA.Their mother died when the boys were 4, but Midón says their grandmother was a strong personin the family and instilled her memories of their mom in their lives.Midón absorbed Argentinian folk music from his dad (who was a professional dancer), alongwith jazz and progressive pop. He considers himself a jazz musician at heart.After graduating from the University of Miami, Midón worked on the local Latin music scene,eventually making a solid living as a backup singer and session player. But he longed to focus onhis own music. So he moved to New York in 2002 and began playing small clubs, like Arthur'sin the West Village. He contributed a song to Spike Lee's "She Hate Me" soundtrack, but most ofthe labels he approached wanted to steer him into commercial R&B.