Miguel, A Maestro Adored

Miguel Live at The Howard Theatre (DC). Photo by Victoria Ford/Sneakshot via The Couch Sessions site.

Miguel is an artist, visionary, and innovator.  He's one of the most promising talents to come along in quite some time.  With two albums and several mixtapes, he's started what could be called a movement...A movement that brings the focus back to talent, style with substance, and entertainment the old fashioned way.  Back in the day, you had to be able to put on a great show—whether you had a hit song or album out or not.  You had to know how to keep your audience entertained.  That's how you kept working.  After seeing Miguel live at The Howard Theatre (in DC) at the end of September (as part of his Kaleidoscope Dream Tour), it's without question that he more than knows how to keep his audience entertained.  

While being pegged as an R&B artist, there's more to Miguel music than that.  If anything, his music is a fusion of many different styles and genres of music.  It's contemporary, futuristic, psychedelic, and old-school.  It's R&B/Soul, Hip Hop, Rock, Pop, Funk, and Electronic.  Hence, his aptly titled second album Kaleidoscope Dream.  Miguel's well-crafted, authentic, soulful music always seems to get at you.  His latest No. 1 R&B single "Adorn" is solid proof of that.  The heartfelt emotion in the lyrics and his vocal performance are what make it so affecting and so effective.  It's simply one of the best R&B songs—hell, it's one of the best written songs in contemporary music today (PERIOD).

With the stage presence as potent as the greats before him (Prince, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Sam Cooke), Miguel captures your attention instantly.  He doesn't have to utter a word...A simple gesture and the crowd goes wild.  Now that's what you call impact, power, and love.  With awe-inspiring creativity, endless style, hypnotic showmanship, and an emotive, supple voice, Miguel is a beast.  After seeing, experiencing really, Miguel live— know that I am without a doubt a fan for life.  

One can only wonder how he'll continue to push the boundaries of contemporary music and performance forward.  The sonic masterpiece that is Kaleidoscope Dream is sign enough that there's much more in store from this maestro.