More than twenty years after his last performance at North Sea Jazz in 1996, the festival celebrates Maxwell’s long-awaited return. The singer-songwriter was instrumental in bringing the neo-soul movement to prominence over the latter half of the ‘90s, creating a whole new genre together with fellow artists such as Fugees and Erykah Badu. After making a name for himself on the New York club scene, Maxwell signed a recording contract and debuted with the 1996 album Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, with which he scored his first Grammy nomination – with many more to follow. Maxwell garnered rave reviews from the onset: Vice magazine dubbed him ‘the next Prince’, while The Washington Post called him ‘the Marvin Gaye of the ‘90s’. After three albums and a seven-year hiatus, he released 2009’s BLACKsummers'night; the first installment of a trilogy of which the second part, blackSUMMERS'night, was released in 2016.
