That would include the country, bluegrass, polka, blues and rock bands that use this instrument, which I learned was called a Stumpf (or stump) fiddle or pogo cello. In the right hands, I’m sure this baby could sing. When I tried it out – bouncing it against the floor and listening to the bells jingle – I heard discordant sounds but no music. I wondered how you could make good music with an instrument whose mechanical parts all seemed the same. It sold for 30 bucks, and the buyer figured that the tap alone was worth the price.
There were only two bidders for the instrument, because most were probably not sure what to do with it. “Looks like something out of New Orleans,” one auction-goer said later, as he and others both admired it and were intrigued by it. The handle was a Miller beer tap, likely retrieved from some neighborhood bar. The instrument looked to be handmade. The beer tap from a bar served as the handle on the instrument. It was as trim as a model, with a wooden staff attached to cymbals ringed by jingle bells at the top a cow bell, wooden block and more bells in the middle a tambourine with a painted image of a Native American chief near the bottom a wire that stretched along its height and finally a spring attachment at the end. Several of us instantly called it a one-man band, and that it was. His tunes with Bossa Nova influence are breathtaking too.When the auctioneer pulled the instrument from its perch in the corner, a single image seemed to come to mind for all of us auction-goers: A street musician on a corner playing his heart out on a one-piece instrument like this. ‘Sunshine I can Fly’ is a fascinating example of the material he recorded with the Metropole Orchestra. “Gotta give a lot of love before my time runs out” is the chorus of ‘Gotta Gotta Give’, another brilliant tune of his. At the same time, calling any of Midón’s tunes “one of the most beautiful” is counterproductive because they all are.Īnd most of them are message songs, meaning Raul Midón is not the kind of artist who would sing what everyone else sings, but a true singer/songwriter. He wrote the piece with the Soul legend Bill Withers and translated it to Spanish, which was Withers’ idea. It contains technology which enables blind people to do recordings without help.Ī tune called ‘Mi Amigo Cubano’ is among the most beautiful tunes Raul Midón has recorded.
His handicap does not stop him from doing anything. During a recent gig, Midón said his album title ‘Bad Ass and Blind’ was some kind of a “coming out”, because people had hardly ever asked him about his blindness until then. Since they did not have the eye protection they needed, they turned blind. His father was Argentinian, his mother African American.Īs newborns, Raul Midón and his twin brother were put into an incubator in a rural hospital. They chose him because he is brilliant, and because he sings in both English and Spanish without the slightest accent. Yes, they are all artists of Latin American descent. In the early days of his career, he worked with artists like Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Julio Iglesias and Jose Feliciano as a backing vocalist. Maybe he wants some of his gigs to include stronger beats, or he might like being accompanied at times. But he seems to like having fellow musicians around him. He obviously does not need bands, because he is one when he hits the stage on his own. He got the other Grammy nomination for the 2018 album ‘If You Really Want’ which included the Metropole Orchestra from the Netherlands. In one case this was about his 2017 album ‘Bad Ass and Blind’, both of which he actually is. He has recorded five more studio albums and a new live record. Since, Raul Midón has performed both as a one-man band and with his group. On top of it all, his songs were, and still are, just as beautiful as they were soulful.
The way he used his instrument as three instruments, namely a guitar, a bass guitar and a drum, impressed and mesmerized his growing fan base. Midón, a genius guitarist and vocalist from New Mexico, introduced guitar-slapping to the world. When he played the title track, his audiences looked at him in awe. ‘State of Mind’ was released, Raul Midón’s third studio album, but the first one which got a lot of attention, including outside the United States of America. Sofia/Bulgaria, February 12th, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) -In 2005, something happened. Raul Midón developed a unique way of composing and playing his instrument.
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