{"id":1976,"date":"2024-10-23T08:19:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T08:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1976"},"modified":"2024-10-23T08:19:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T08:19:33","slug":"breaking-50th-anniversary-tribute-maze-feat-frankie-beverly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1976","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Our 50th anniversary tribute to Maze feat. Frankie Beverly"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1ecc5cd elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content\" data-id=\"1ecc5cd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-content.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/soultracks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/maze_0-905.jpg\" alt=\"Our 50th anniversary tribute to Maze feat. Frankie Beverly - SoulTracks\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2020 is a momentous year for many reasons, but is it a special year of celebration for one of the all-time great R&amp;B band.\u00a0<strong>Maze featuring Frankie Beverly\u00a0<\/strong>was formed 50 years ago, and they grew to become something special.\u00a0By any measure, they one of the most talented but criminally underappreciated self-contained bands of the past half century. They may also be the all-time family picnic band, too. Their ability to fuse soul and jazz with an irresistible groove and strong lyrical content has gained for them an extremely loyal following among Soul music fans and great respect among their performing peers, but little attention in the pop music world.<\/p>\n<p>Group founder and leader Frankie Beverly was born and raised in the musical city of Philadelphia, and began singing as a child in church. As an early teen he hooked up with 50s soul group the Silhouettes (who sang the doo-wop number \u201cGet a Job,\u201d which influenced Smokey Robinson\u2019s first hit composition, \u201cGot a Job\u201d). By the early 60s, Beverly founded a doo-wop group called the Butlers and worked with future legendary Philly record executive and producer Kenny Gamble. The Butlers had significant local success, but never broke out nationally.<\/p>\n<p>While clearly talented, Beverly and his various bands were not the prototypical Philly soul acts, and in the early 70s he moved with his new group to San Francisco, where he met Marvin Gaye, who took a liking to the band and helped them land a contract with Capitol Records under the new name Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/3q2hg4GX7ALh2pYdgzDpft\" width=\"300\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s Capitol debut was a Soul smash, yielding the hit \u201cWhile I\u2019m Alone\u201d and hitting the Soul top 10. As with the act\u2019s future albums, the subtle jazz stylings and smooth grooves were extremely appealing to Soul music fans, but had almost zero pop crossover. Over the next decade, Maze released a series of well crafted, well received albums that uniformly hit top 10 Soul and pulled onto the Top 100 pop charts based on sales among black audiences. The group also released a number of memorable singles, including \u201cJoy and Pain,\u201d \u201cSouthern Girl,\u201d \u201cLove Is The Key,\u201d \u201cBack In Stride\u201d (a #1 Soul hit) and \u201cCan\u2019t Get Over You\u201d (another #1).<\/p>\n<p>After a string of gold and platinum albums, Maze left Capitol in 1989 and released the album<em>\u00a0Silky Soul\u00a0<\/em>on Warner Brothers<em>,\u00a0<\/em>another fine disc highlighted by the wonderful Marvin Gaye tribute title cut. Soon afterward, the group performed a series of critically acclaimed performances in connection with Nelson Mandela\u2019s first tour of the U.S. following his release from a South African prison.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/13DPzltcv8RmuzQDfw2ItH\" width=\"300\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Maze followed in 1993 with\u00a0<em>Back to Basics<\/em>, another hit album that confounded critics who felt that the group\u2019s best days were behind it. Inexplicably, it became the band\u2019s final release of the decade, despite hitting the Soul top 5 and the Pop top 40.<\/p>\n<p>For the past quarter century, Maze has been silent on record, while continuing to tour regularly. However, pushed by Frankie Beverly\u2019s son Anthony, the silence was broken during 2009, as the group participated in an All-Star tribute to Maze, featuring an A-List of contemporary R&amp;B artists.\u00a0 The disc,\u00a0<strong><em>Silky Soul Music\u2026An All Star Tribute to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>was released to uniform critical praise.\u00a0 Sadly, group member\u00a0Bug Williams died on September 4, 2011. In July 2012, Beverly won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards.<\/p>\n<p>As we sit in the second decade of the new millennium, the influence of Maze continues to shine, as dozens of young acts acknowledge the influence of these R&amp;B pioneers. And the group\u2019s enviable catalog is still the soundtrack for family parties throughout America.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>By Chris Rizik<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f4fe6bb jedv-enabled--yes e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" data-id=\"f4fe6bb\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n<div class=\"e-con-inner\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3bad97fa e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" data-id=\"3bad97fa\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4c3072fc jedv-enabled--yes e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" data-id=\"4c3072fc\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3b07ef1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3b07ef1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Video<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-38289536 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"38289536\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;youtube_url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=wU0d4FtYRjs&quot;,&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;youtube&quot;,&quot;controls&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<div class=\"elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" class=\"elementor-video\" title=\"MAZE - Live in New Orleans: November 15, 1980\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wU0d4FtYRjs?controls=1&amp;rel=0&amp;playsinline=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fsoultracks.com&amp;widgetid=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 is a momentous year for many reasons, but is it a special year of celebration for one of the all-time great R&amp;B band.\u00a0Maze featuring Frankie Beverly\u00a0was formed 50 years ago, and they grew to become something special.\u00a0By any measure, they one of the most talented but criminally underappreciated self-contained bands of the past half [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-band"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-300x239.jpg",300,239,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-360x180.jpg",360,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-620x375.jpg",620,375,true],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-120x86.jpg",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-350x250.jpg",350,250,true],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-360x493.jpg",360,493,true],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-75x75.jpg",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905-350x350.jpg",350,350,true],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/maze_0-905.jpg",620,493,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a 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