Jazz breaking news: Richard Bona and Raul Midon Blaze On A Hot Summer Night

And so it was when New Mexico-born singer/guitarist Raul Midon and Cameroonian singer/bassist Richard Bona, both stratospherically brilliant musicians, hit the stage on a sticky August night in Camden to a packed Jazz Café. Performing in a stripped back quartet – with long time Bona keyboardist Etienne Stadwijk and hard-grooving drummer Lionel Cordew – contrasting sharply with the bassist’s usual expanded global-jazz group.

Thus the Duwala Malambo Project is on the face of it a PR’s dream but this band is all about the music of which there was an abundance in every bar. Positively oozing rhythmic nuance and deep soulfulness this was a song-led gig with each vocalist taking turns to lead with sweet vocal harmonies creating layers of richness. The temperature was already hot with the crowd buzzing in expectation and it was to their credit they hung on every nugget of dazzling technique. Which in Midon’s case is never ending; whether it’s his uncannily accurate trumpet vocalisations (often harmonised a third away from the chord he’s playing), his sensual finger picked guitar work or his impassioned vocals the man never ceases to amaze. Indeed, it takes a lot to put someone as gifted as Bona in the shade, but on a few occasions Midon’s awe-inspiring musical instincts connected with the audience with pinpoint accuracy.

Yet this was no competition as there was so much mutual respect between these two – which even on a stunning take of the Weather Report/Jaco Pastorius classic ‘Teen Town’ with Midon scatting the tricky unison melody over his darting guitar line, before swapping some intense solos with Bona, both impressed equally. Inevitably it was their "hits" that were saved for last with Midon bringing the house down with a solo rendition of ‘Sunshine’ his uplifting soul-jazz anthem that found him singing, playing guitar and bongos simultaneously. Bona had preceded this with one of his mesmerising displays of live looping – layering up multi-part vocals – before singing high and clear above.

The rousing finale included Bona’s Latin-fuelled funk ‘O Sen Sen Sen’ which has become something of a live favourite but it was Midon’s masterful ode to positive living ‘State Of Mind’, that sealed this emphatic and heartfelt musical partnership in roof-raising style.

 – Mike Flynn