The sold-out Maze featuring Frankie Beverly concert on May 25 at the Smoothie King Center was billed as Beverly’s final New Orleans concert before his impending retirement.
But now the 77-year-old soul/R&B singer is also slated to appear at the 2024 Essence Festival of Culture on July 7, the third and final night of the event's 30th anniversary celebration in the Caesars Superdome.
What’s not clear is the nature of Beverly’s Essence appearance. An Essence Fest social media video announcing it said his long history with the festival – he was the closing act for the first 15 years, then returned in 2015 and 2019 – will be celebrated.
The announcement referred to a "star-studded tribute" and noted the festival is "honored to honor Frankie Beverly and Maze."
Whether that means Beverly and Maze will perform a full set, a partial set or be feted while other artists sing his songs is unknown.
Frankie Beverly & Maze perform during the final night of the 2019 Essence Festival at the Superdome in New Orleans, La., on Sunday, July 7, 2019.
In the video, Beverly himself says, "It's always nice to be honored by your people....The 30th anniversary of Essence is a wonderful thing."
Fans are asked to wear all-white that night, in keeping with the tradition of Beverly's long-ago closing nights at Essence.
In 2019, Essence staged a tribute to Beverly that opened with the singer Anthony Hamilton performing with Maze. Mayor LaToya Cantrell presented Beverly with a key to the city; Ed Lewis, the co-founder of both Essence Magazine and the Essence Fest, gave a brief speech. Then Beverly performed a five-song, 30-minute set with Maze.
Will this year’s Essence tribute follow a similar format? An Essence spokesperson said additional details about Beverly’s participation will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Beverly was one of several acts for the Essence Fest's July 5-7 nighttime concerts that were revealed recently. The announced roster as of this writing also includes the Cash Money Millionaires; Janet Jackson; Charlie Wilson; SWV; TGT featuring Tank, Genuwine and Tyrese; Victoria Monet; and D-Nice Presents Club Quarantine Live featuring Big Boi, Lloyd, Method Man, Sheila E, Donnell Jones, Machel Montano and Tweet.
With the festival less than seven weeks away, some fans have been frustrated by Essence Fest’s protracted rollout of its talent roster, which also started later than usual. Instead of releasing the entire lineup, Essence has unveiled a new name only every few days.
Essence spokesperson Niyah Brooks said the one-by-one reveal of the 30th anniversary roster was intended to let each artist get some individual attention.
“We wanted to make sure everybody has their own moment to be celebrated,” Brooks said.
Love for and from New Orleans
If any artist deserves to be celebrated by Essence, it’s Beverly. New Orleans has enjoyed a decades-long love affair with the music he's made with Maze.
Beverly grew up in Philadelphia. The original incarnation of what became Maze was known as Raw Soul. After relocating to the Bay Area in California, the group came to the attention of Marvin Gaye, who enlisted Beverly and company as an opening act. It was reportedly Gaye who convinced the group to change its name to Maze.
After opening for ConFunkShun at the Municipal Auditorium sometime in the mid-1970s, Maze returned to headline the ILA Auditorium on South Claiborne Avenue. The room was sweltering, its walls streaked with condensation.
That weekend evolved into a monthlong local residency, as Maze records flew off the shelves. The warm Big Easy reception took Beverly by surprise. “I never thought we’d do well in the South," he has said. "We weren’t funky like Cameo. We had that California thing. We did songs. I didn't know the South would take to us."
New Orleans embraced the band “like we were born and raised here. It was like a disease here.”
Maze recorded 1979's “Inspiration” album at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa. The following year, they decided to record two shows at the Saenger for a concert album. Beverly had to lobby Capitol Records to A, let the band make a live album, and B, record it in New Orleans, far from Los Angeles or New York. He suspected that New Orleans would supply an appropriately ecstatic backdrop.
On Nov. 14-15, 1980, Maze recorded the classic concert double-album “Live in New Orleans” at the Saenger Theatre. The gold-selling album cemented Maze's reputation as a killer live act, and its special relationship with the city.
Upon the release of “Live in New Orleans” in 1981, Maze’s popularity surged, especially in Europe. In New Orleans, that popularity never waned. Year after year, fans turned out to sing along to "Joy and Pain," "Before I Let Go," "Back In Stride," "Running Away," "We Are One," "Happy Feelin's" and other classics in the Maze catalog.
The enduring affection for Maze in New Orleans was evidenced by how quickly tickets were snapped up for the I Wanna Thank You Farewell Tour’s stop on May 25 at the Smoothie King Center, which will be open to its full capacity of 14,000 or so. At press time, only a handful of resale tickets remained, in the $200 price range.
By contrast, thousands of tickets remain for Beverly’s June 14 concert at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. and his June 22 show at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis; those arenas aren’t even using their upper balconies.
Joining Maze for the New Orleans show, which is being promoted by Urban Vibe Entertainment, is the current incarnation of the O'Jays, featuring Eddie Levert, Walter Williams and Eric Nolan Grant, who are on a farewell tour of their own.
The veteran R&B group the Whispers rounds out the bill for "One Last Time Live in New Orleans," as the show is titled – even though Essence will now apparently be Beverly's one last time in New Orleans.