Maxwell Brings Neo-Soul to the Symphony

Maxwell has been performing shows in the Bay Area since 1997, when he toured with his first album, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, a game-changing work that helped shape neo-soul as a genre. He was here two times in 2022 alone, for his Night Tour stop in Oakland and as a headliner for the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa.

But the singer’s upcoming visit to the Bay promises to be unlike any other — because the Grammy-winner will be performing with the San Francisco Symphony for the first time, at Davies Symphony Hall on Aug. 4 and 5.

“The San Francisco Symphony orchestra is badass. I’ve seen all the stuff. I’ve watched clips. And I’m very excited to share the space,” says Maxwell. “Even though it is a night of music that I’ve written over the course of my life, I am at their house. And so I’ll definitely bring something over. You know, I’ll bring drinks, I’ll bring flowers.”

The show will feature orchestral arrangements of some of Maxwell’s biggest songs, like “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder),” “Lifetime” and “Whenever, Wherever, Whatever.” Maxwell first premiered these versions — arranged by musician and composer Derrick Hodge — when he performed four sold-out dates with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2019.

“I love getting down and dirty with the original versions [of my songs]… But when you hear it in an orchestral way, it’s just so beautiful. It feels so angelic,” Maxwell says.

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I was in the audience for one of those Kennedy Center shows, and one of my favorite interpretations was for his 2009 hit “Pretty Wings” — a song whose studio version already features a gorgeous horn section. It becomes even more lush and goosebump-inducing with an orchestra.

The reimagining of “Pretty Wings” even blew Maxwell away when he first heard it: “What they did with the strings — there’s moments where I want to stop singing and I want to turn around and watch with you.”

The show also pulls out some deeper cuts that don’t typically make his setlists, like “Symptom Unknown” from his 2001 album, Now.

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“There’s a couple of songs that are very dramatic and kind of medieval, to a degree,” Maxwell says. “And then there’s obviously those really beautiful ballads that just make you want to hug someone.”

The SF Symphony audience will also be treated to a few brand-new arrangements —and a side of Maxwell fans don’t typically see. With a symphony performance, says the singer, “the truth of you and your emotion has to be really right there. You have to be extremely vulnerable.”

“I’m in awe of it. And I’m also scared,” he says. “And those are the things that make me know that something good might happen here. Because that little bit of fear means that you care, you know?”

Steven Reineke, who conducted the shows in D.C., will reunite with Maxwell to conduct the singer’s SF Symphony debut. Renowned for his work at Carnegie Hall, the National Symphony and others, Reineke has also become known for his collaborations with R&B and hip-hop stars, including Cynthia Erivo, Nas, Common and Kendrick Lamar.

As with Maxwell’s other symphony performances, audience members will be asked to lock up their cell phones in Yondr pouches for the duration of the show, a conscious choice intended to pay homage to the orchestra, and to take us back to the old school way of experiencing concerts.

“We get to kind of shut the world off for a second and really appreciate the magnitude of what [we]’re hearing,” Maxwell says of the decision. “Because I’m literally falling over inside myself, trying to keep it together because I’m so stunned by the harps and the conviction with which it’s played. It’s something to behold, really. So, I can’t wait. I’ve been practicing.”

‘Maxwell: A Night at the Symphony’ is scheduled for Aug. 4 and 5 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. More details here.