*Two of Music’s Most Inventive Talents Team Up for a Collaboration That Acknowledges No Creative, Spiritual or Musical Boundaries*
The Duwala Malambo Project featuring Richard Bona and Raul Midón
Richard Bona and Raul Midón are two of modern music’s most unique artists. Both possess a strong musical persona that’s instantly recognizable from the first note of any performance.
Midón is known for his unique, high-energy acoustic guitar technique, sonorous voice and intelligent songwriting. “Most songs tend to be about love, which is fine, but I want to be more poetic and bring in more complex emotional elements in my writing. I want to get past the ‘meet you in the club and dance all night long’ stuff.” By combining flamenco flourishes, folk strums, hammer ons and pull offs and jazzy comped chords, Midón’s guitar often sounds like a small acoustic combo. His improvisations on faux trumpet, generated by blowing notes through his closed lips, add to this illusion, producing a sound Miles would be proud of.
“Years ago, I played acoustic sets at a rowdy West Village bar,” Midón says. “The room was hostile, full of hard-core drinkers, so I took on this warrior approach to guitar. I knew I had to do something to make them listen. It nudged me into developing a percussive, high-energy way of playing. If I’d strummed sensitive songs, I would have been buried by the crowd.”
Midón’s energetic mix of soul, pop, jazz, folk, and Latin music was matchless. Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) signed Midón to Manhattan Records. That led to his first national TV gig on The David Letterman Show.
“I saw Raul on Letterman,” Bona recalls. “He was wonderful. I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of him. A few weeks later, he sent me a beautiful email, so we met at my studio in New York. We played and it sounded good, but you never know how it’s going to go over live. When we played in Europe last year, we clicked and people loved it. We’re going out this spring with a small band to see how far we can go.”
Bona is known for his amazing electric bass work, but he’s also a talented vocalist, songwriter, arranger and bandleader. Since coming to New York in 1995, he’s played with Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny, been musical director for Harry Belafonte and worked with the Brecker Brothers, Larry Coryell and Steve Gadd. “I get bored quickly,” Bona explains, laughing. “I don’t like to play the same arrangement every day. I have to go my own way.”
Adept at jazz, West African pop and folkloric music and rhythms from around the world, from samba to son and reggae to rai, Bona has created his own unique vision of jazz and world music. It’s a sound that strikes a chord with listeners, no matter what continent he’s on.
“Raul is a kindred soul,” Bona says. “When we played as a duo in Stockholm, we were looking good. We did some of his songs and some of my songs. We both have wide ranging, but different, musical interests. He can sing in Spanish and I can sing in French and Douala, so there is endless potential to reach out to different audiences.
“Raul plays from his heart and likes to work hard. My heart is always in the music. I don’t care if I break my foot or have a cold, as long as I’m playing, I’m OK. We both focus on the music, which will keep everything in balance.”
Websites
http://www.raulmidon.com
http://www.bonatology.com
http://www.imnworld.com/artists/detail/186
