Coltrane Jazz Festival (2026)- Raul Midon
What’s up friends? Well, it was that time of year again. If you know me, you know I love a good outdoor jazz music festival. If you look back through some of my posts, last year at the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival (2025) I had the pleasure of meeting one of my musical idols, Meshelle N’degeocello. This year, I wasn’t quite as lucky as it was almost rained out, but fortunately it stopped in time for me to catch a new face. Well, he probably isn’t new, but definitely new to me. I got to absorb the music of Raul Midon. And he is a one-man band, for sure.
Admittedly, I am a relatively new comer to the world of jazz and am still learning the scene. Raul’s performance of “Sunshine (I Can Fly)” couldn’t have been a better introduction. While I walked around, I was able listen to some other artists over the sound system, but you know, nothing beats a live performance. Raul is legally blind and has been for most of his life, but that had no bearing on how he played. It was something about his calm spirit and familiarity that made me really enjoy the energy he put out. It was a combination of the right song and the right time. And that right time wasn’t felt by me alone; it was also a shared experience. And that can be an important distinction.
The more I reflect on the experience, I think about how often we live through experiences and at the same time, we stand on the outside of it looking in. For instance, while Raul was performing, I looked around and saw everyone pulling out their cameras to take pictures and at the same time commenting to their friends how good the performance was going. At the same time, it’s not uncommon to begin thinking about everything else accept where the music was taking me. For me, in my mind, I was thinking simultaneously of how I wanted this blog post to flow and what would be the best picture to accompany it. That makes me think about how many other things we miss because our minds are distracted. We may still be focused on the main goal to support and appreciate Raul’s musical prowess, but at the same time lose awareness of presence and the calming spirit music has the ability to do. That’s why live music is so important to me personally because you don’t get to fast-forward or rewind. If you want to catch that raw and live reinterpretation artists routinely give in a live performance, you must be present and aware.
Again, this was my first experience with Raul Midon’s music and I was not disappointed. As the song Sunshine was performed, it forced me to think about the moments of being alive and how grateful I am. Because when I am “here”, presence isn’t an exercise; it’s the place you are in that moment. We don’t need to save awareness for the most dramatic or significant milestones, benchmarks, or tentpoles. It’s meant to exist in everything we do and to be shared with everyone who surrounds us. Music is an understated gift. I definitely credit Raul’s performance a gift as I stood there hearing it and living it in the moment.
Raul Midon - Sunshine:
Stay mindful…
Rebirth
