My first
trip to Strathmore’s new small club in Rockville’s Pike & Rose development since
its official opening in March proved gratifying, both musically and otherwise.
We got to the parking garage 5-10 minutes before the club doors opened at 6:30
and had no trouble either finding a parking place or a good seat. (Note that
sitting on the window side gets you as far away as possible from whatever
conversations may be going on in the bar area.) The service was great, and the
salmon entrée was both delicious and reasonably priced.
I hadn’t
listened to any of Midón’s music coming in, but he proved to be an engaging and
charismatic performer, singing and playing a mean acoustic guitar (plus bongos
on his final main-set song), as well as doing an uncanny mouth trumpet that
could hardly be distinguished from the real thing. He started out solo, then
brought out David and Daniel Bailen to play drums and bass, respectively. Style-wise,
he mixes folk, soul, and Latin sounds, doing some singing in Spanish on a
couple of numbers. Highlights included the songs that opened and closed his
main set (“Sunshine (I Can Fly)” and “State Of Mind”), as well as “Was It Ever
Really Love” (currently on the national Smooth Jazz singles chart), “Always
Time For Love”, and “Mi Amigo Cubano” (which he co-wrote with Bill Withers).
And, by the
way, Midón has been blind since infancy.
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