Maxwell
Maxwell
Gerald Rivera, Gerald M. Rivera, Gerald Maxwell Rivera, MUSZE
Maxwell has artfully managed to transfix music lovers for more than two decades, releasing 4 studio albums, all in his own time – all duly anointed as classics. Now, the Brooklyn-born soul legend returns with his 5th album, BlackSUMMERS’night, the long-awaited second installment of his trailblazing trilogy, a powerful reminder that great music really is about more than moving the twitter needle.
Maxwell’s reentry into the pop orbit straddles but never strains the fertile groundwork he’s already laid as an R&B/soul pioneer. His seminal 1996 debut album, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, which the New York Times credited for ‘turning away gangsta’ machismo to reclaim the utopian spirit of 70s soul…’has been enthusiastically re-celebrated recently in an avalanche of commemorative articles marking the 20th anniversary of the genre spawning debut. His last album, 2009’s #1 debuting, Grammy-winning BLACKsummers’night and its signature single “Pretty Wings,” (which owned the top spot on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart for 4 and a half months) tamped down Chapter 1 of the sensual, pathfinding trilogy. The album landed on most critics’ Year’s Best lists and snared 2 Grammys, with Rolling Stone praising it as an ‘album about love, not sex, for grown-ups who know the difference.’
The ambitious follow-up reaffirms Maxwell’s commitment to further the musical crossroads, even as he acknowledges his own reluctance to willingly let go of his own “I knew the new album was good, that it was done – but they still had to tear it from my hands to get it out,” he says. Most revealingly, he admits to arriving at a ‘good place’ at 43 years of age, equipped with a keener sense of proportion about the seductive mystique he has come to represent. “I think what messes up a lot of pop artists after they’ve been down the road a bit is that the record becomes much more about their personal drama instead of the music. I’m not going to disrespect anyone’s hustle, but I’m not interested in being a celebrity. Today, you have people purposely marketing their personal life into their music. With me, you’re looking at a mom and pop store,” he laughs. “I need that spark that drives the music, but within that life I always want to create something that affects people emotionally and spiritually. At the end of the day that’s what enables me to become secondary to the experience of the music.”