(February 13, 2024) Well, we knew that one of our all-time favorite groups, Maze feat. Frankie Beverly, was beginning the “I Wanna Thank You Tour.” But what we didn’t know is that that tour is now being billed as the group’s Farewell Tour. The flyer posted by the group on Instagram for the opening concert on March 22 in Atlanta, featuring support from Chaka Khan and El DeBarge, clearly lets us know that this may be the last time to see this iconic act live.
This follows the creation last year of TMF (The Music Forever), a touring and recording band consisting of former members of Maze, which is remaining active.
By any measure, one of the most talented but criminally underappreciated self-contained bands of the past half century, Maze’s ability to fuse soul and jazz with an irresistible groove and intelligent lyrical content has gained for the members an extremely loyal following among Soul music fans and great respect among their performing peers, but little attention in the pop music world. And Maze has been the official band of virtually every family picnic for more than forty years.
The band, led by the 77 year old Beverly, promises that other dates for the tour will be announced soon. Here are the dates we know so far:
March 22: State Farm Arena — Atlanta, Ga.
April 6: Mobile County Fairgrounds — Mobile, Ala.
April 13: Toyota Arena — Houston, Texas
April 27: United Center — Chicago, Ill.
May 12: Kia Forum — Los Angeles, Calif.
July 6: Dell Music Center — Philadelphia, Pa
We’ll let you know more as we know!
