Genre-bending icons and Raul Midón and Lionel Loueke join forces to present a special night of incredible guitar and vocal wizardry. The acclaimed instrumentalists-singers will perform individual sets of original material in an evening that will culminate in an unforgettable jam backed by Loueke’s dynamic trio.

Raul Midón is celebrated as one of music’s most distinctive and searching voices. Heralded as a “one-man band who turns a guitar into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus,” (NY Times), Midón has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder and even Snoop Dogg. Blind since birth, Midón produced-engineered his first Grammy-nominated album, Bad Ass and Blind (Mack Avenue Records), that confronts the challenges of blindness and musical composition. Midón’s 2018 follow up release, If You Really Want, was nominated for a 2019 Grammy award in this same category.

Lionel Loueke, in part due to his West African (Benin) roots and world music experience, brings influences to jazz that color his unique phrasing as a guitarist and vocalist. A Herbie Hancock protégé for the past 10 years, Loueke has also recorded and toured with varied instrumentalists and vocalists. Praised by Hancock as “a musical painter,” Loueke combines harmonic complexity, soaring melody, a deep knowledge of African folk forms, and unconventional guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative personal sound. Loueke received critical acclaim from his idols and contemporaries on his latest release, The Journey. Paul Simon raves that Loueke is “one of a rare handful of guitarists that move effortlessly between his West African roots and modern American Jazz”, and Sting cites Loueke as “one the most original, essential and inspiring musicians on our planet today.”

ARTISTIC PERSONNEL
Raul Midón – guitar, vocals, percussion
Lionel Loueke – guitar, vocals
Massimo Biolcati – double bass
Ferenc Nemeth – drums