Better Nights, Better Times: The Ongoing Appeal of Maxwell

The suave Brooklyn-born crooner isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. He’s at that enviable point in his career when he’s mastered his craft and honed his art. He’s focused like a laser. But that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t get a little anxious before the big show. The singer’s pre-performance routine is largely unchanged, and he knows that his loyal fan base is there to hear the singer at his best. “First thing [is] I just want to hit all the notes,” Maxwell says as he prepares to take the stage. “I go through a lot of songs — a lot of Marvin Gaye, a lot of DeBarge and I do a lot of exercises.”

Maxwell has made some great albums over the course of his fifteen year career, but the essence of his appeal — that thing that sends his female fans into shrieking and teenage histrionics — is largely derived from his stage shows. His fan base is as devoted as any other in music and after one visit to a concert, one can see firsthand and appreciate the level of adoration and adulation they heap upon the singer.

“He just makes me want to cry,” says Lauren Adkins, a mother of two from New Jersey. “I was in college when he first came out and I’ve followed his entire career. The first time I saw him in concert was around 1998 and it was one of the most touching musical experiences I’ve ever had. I love Maxwell!” Adkins is one of many women who speak of Maxwell as if he’s that long lost boyfriend that they never quite got over. For his fans, the love for his music is personal. It seems to transcend a simple case of an artist having devoted audience. There’s an almost intimate connection between the singer and his female fans. Maxwell is oftentimes compared to Marvin Gaye. And while the vocal stylings and seductive musical approaches are very similar, Maxwell is performing and recording for a generation of women who are collectively experiencing heartache on an almost epic scale. One look at the unprecedented rate of black men in prison; the dismal statistics for marriages; and the number of black women still single into their 40s, and it becomes clear why an artist like Maxwell, who sings about love, commitment, romance and a genuine connection, can musically come to represent an ideal. Women are longing to have a man feel for them the way Maxwell seems to feel for them.

“I think people want something they can hold onto emotionally,” he says. “The world is crazy right now … I think the world is ready for something that takes it back to that warmth, [to] that soul.” And what is not lost on the singer is that his audiences now vary in age and generations, all clamoring for the same sort of connection with the music. “The age ranges just blow my mind,” he says. “One time there was a daughter, a mother and a grandmother and they all actually wanted to be there. I never dreamed that any of this would go this far. I just wanted something that I felt was missing in music a little bit. I wanted to give people something that was more emotional. It’s incredible that it worked and people really do connect on some level with what’s happening. I don’t really feel a great deal of entitlement for any of that. I feel really happy that I’m here to be the recipient [of that sentiment] and the person that brings this. It’s a great, great feeling.”

Maxwell remains humble about the esteem his fans hold him in and he talks as if he’s providing a service or fulfilling a need, as opposed to being a genius musician who the world is lucky to have witnessed. “I don’t watch performances. As far as the celebrity part — it’s not the thing that interests me the most,” he says. “What interests me is seeing those faces and seeing them dressed [up.] It’s a night out for them.”

Having taken an almost eight-year hiatus between the release of Now and his latest album, BLACKsummers’ night, Maxwell is reflective about fame and how fleeting it can be. He admits he took his time with this album because he wanted to make it on his own terms and when he was creatively ready. But he never expected the industry or the record buying public to wait for him to make some triumphant return.

While he’s grateful that he has been re-affirmed as one of the preeminent vocalists of modern soul, he knows that things move in cycles. He feels that his latest album happened to appear at a time when folks were longing for what many have dubbed “Grown Folks’ R&B.”

“I just feel like right now it’s swung back to something and this is part of a new change on a certain level. Even though I’ve been around for so many years, I’m down to be a part of it,” he says. “I feel that someone else will come and continue this after me. To me it’s a baton and we’re all just passing [it]. I hope to share and I hope that many people share with others as well, and in the end I get to do what I love doing. Not many people can say that. I come from a background of hardworking people and doing what they’ve got to do to make that money and it’s not like that for me. This is a gift that I cherish greatly. All I can say is ‘thank you, thank you, and more thank you.’ Show radio and show the world that there’s room for this. I was talking to Mary J. Blige about this and she’s such a legend and a class act and the least likely person expected to be where she is and here she is. We just talked about soul music and how it can’t die. I’m just glad I picked this.”