“Eclectic Adventurist”, Raul Midón’s new album !
How Raul Midón weathered a global pandemic with a little help from his friends…who just happen to be some of most talented guitarists on the planet.
Over the course of eleven extraordinary solo albums and numerous studio sessions with musicians as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Jose Feliciano, Shakira and Snoop Dogg, singer-songwriter Raul Midón had achieved much. But there was one mountain he had yet to scale—recording an instrumental album that focused on his wonderfully distinctive acoustic guitar playing.
“It is something that I wanted to do for a long time, but I’ve always been on tour or distracted by other projects,” Midón explains. ”When the pandemic hit, it was like, ‘Okay, this is the time to do it.’ This project gave me the excuse to really practice my guitar and focus on letting the instrument be the expresser rather than my voice.”
As the concept for the album began to unfold, Midón decided it would be even more fun and exciting to undertake the creative journey with some of his talented colleagues, and the goal of recording a series of duets commenced.
“The idea was appealing on so many levels,” he says. “It gave me an excuse to reconnect with a bunch of amazing players—some I hadn’t spoken with in 20 years—and it gave my compositions focus.”
For inspiration, the musician immersed himself in the music of the players he wanted to work with, and then wrote something that he thought would make a good platform for them to do “their own thing.” The result is one of the finest and most diverse musical experiences of this young decade.
Co-starring pickers as varied as jazz-rock shredder Mike Stern, studio legend Dean Parks and gypsy jazz virtuoso Stephane Wrembel, Eclectic Adventurist is a thrilling musical roller coaster ride with some of today’s greatest six-string masters.
Holding it all together and keeping the music firmly on track, however, is Midón and his engaging compositions and sophisticated playing. While he makes subtle adjustments in his playing to complement his special guests, it is his masterful rhythm playing, captivating chord voicings and lyrical soloing that make “Eclectic Adventurist” a surprisingly refreshing and cohesive artistic statement.
Each track is, indeed, an “adventure,” and like any excursion all of them have their own engaging story. As such, we asked Raul to give us a short guided tour.