In a room filled with mixed-company, mention the group Frankie Beverly and Maze and watch hundreds of years of racial segregation reproduce itself right before your eyes. In a world where many Whites are still coming to terms with the insular realities of Black life and culture, Frankie Beverly and Maze may be one of the biggest secrets of all.


Virtually unknown to White audiences, save the summer barbeque at a Black colleagues house, Frankie Beverly is the closest thing that Black America has to the Grateful Dead. But whereas “Dead Heads”—the traveling band of fans who follow the group around the country—were seeming only looking for music to accompany their purple haze, most of Frankie Beverly’s fans are simply looking for good times and community. It is in that spirit that several contemporary r&b and gospel stars, including Mary J. Blige, Joe and J. Moss, came together to pay tribute to Black America’s favorite band.


Frankie Beverly and Maze was founded in 1969, when Philadelphia native Beverly, formed a jazz-rock band known as Frankie Beverly’s Raw Soul. Though the band had some minor regional success in the City of Brotherly Love—a city that was teeming with soul music at the time—Beverly and members of the band packed up in 1972 and moved across the country to the Bay area. Perhaps hoping to take advantage of the popularity of psychedelic soul in the area, as best represented by the high visibility of Sly and the Family Stone, the band struggled for few years until Marvin Gaye called on the band to back him when he was touring in the Bay Area.


Gaye was impressed by the musicians and their lead singer and brought a copy of their demo tape to his friend Larkin Arnold, who was then an executive at Capital Records, also label home to Natalie Cole. Changing their name to Frankie Beverly and Maze, the band released their self-titled debut in 1977. The band would pay tribute to Gaye’s guiding hand a decade later with their classic “Silky Soul Singer” which serves as inspiration for the title of Silky Soul Music: An All-Star Tribute to Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly.


The new tribute recording comes on the heels of Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth Wind Fire (2007), but whereas Earth, Wind, and Fire had many crossover hits, Frankie Beverly and Maze’s success has been comparatively limited by most commercial standards. What helped the band build such a huge following was their amazing and energetic live shows, where Beverly is dressed in his requisite all-white attire, embodying the sex symbol status of his mentor (even today, a few years past his 60th birthday). Though the group hasn’t released any new material since 1993, have been without a recording contract for more than a decade, and have never had a single break into the top-20 pop charts—to put this in perspective “Laffy Taffy” once topped the charts—Frankie Beverly and Maze continue to sell out arenas, often headlining festivals like the Essence Music Festival where they are a yearly highlight.


Ultimately, what keeps people coming back to Frankie Beverly and Maze is the timeless quality of the music. While no one will ever mistake their music for the funky intricacies of artists such as Prince or even the aforementioned Earth, Wind and Fire, there was always an accessible and infectious quality about the music of Frankie Beverly and Maze. The group’s music is rooted in a belief of family and the beloved community as expressed on tracks like “We Are One,” here covered by Raheem DeVaughn or “I Wanna Thank you” the decidedly obscure b-side of the 1980 release “Southern Girl” which is given a fine treatment by The Clark Sisters, Kiki Sheard and J. Moss on the tribute recording.


Of course Frankie Beverly and Maze has recorded a veritable mix tape of barbeque and graduation party classics beginning with classics such as “Joy and Pain” and “Back in Stride.” Though Avant’s version of “Joy in Pain” will not make anybody to forget the original or Rob Base’s remake for that matter, he captures the general spirit of the song. More successful is Mint Condition’s version of “Back in Stride.” The two bands toured together in the summer of 2007 and no doubt the younger band learned a few things about longevity.


Two of the bands most well known songs, “Can’t Get Over You” (the band’s most successful single) and “Before I Let Go” are reserved for two of the best known acts on the collection. Joe is in fine form on “Can’t Get Over You,” the project’s first single. Though Mary J. Blige’s version of “Before I Let Go” never quite gets you free like the original, her hip-hop Soul swagger captures why the song might be the only R&B song recorded in the last thirty years that resonates across generations. Some of the other highlights include Ledisi’s take on “Happy Feelings” and Kevon Edmonds’ return on the 1983 single “Never Let You Down.” In the end Silky Soul Music: An All-Star Tribute to Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly stands as a solid celebration of the only band, perhaps, capable of getting all of Black America on its feet at the same time.



Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University, the author of four books and producer of the blog NewBlackMan, from which this essay is taken.

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