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.
