Maxwell at Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair

American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor Maxwell began his music career in the early-1990s and is considered by many as one of the original voices of neo-soul. Signed to Columbia Records in 1994, he released his debut album, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite, in 1996, which was declared one of the year's top-10 best albums by Time, Rolling Stone and USA Today and earned a Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album at the 39th Grammy Awards. The album launched four successful singles and led to him recording an episode of the concert series MTV Unplugged. Embrya, Maxwell's 1998 follow-up album, was certified platinum in the US and earned the singer a second Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album. His fourth studio album, BLACKsummer'snight, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and received six nominations at the 2010 Grammy Awards, winning "Best R&B Album" for BLACKsummers'night and "Best Male R&B Vocal Performance" for "Pretty Wings." To date, Maxwell has released five studio albums – the most recent being 2016's blackSUMMERS'night.