Soul singer and Maze founder Frankie Beverly dead at 77

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Frankie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 6, 1946. attended Philadelphia’s Germantown High School. Beverly, whose real name was Howard Stanley Beverly, died at age 77.

He has always had a passion for music and began performing gospel music in a local church as a schoolboy.

He started his musical career as a teenager who played for the band “The Blenders.” After some time, he left the band and formed his band, “The Butlers,” where he served for eight years.  Beverly founded the band Raw Soul in 1970 and later changed its name to Maze at the suggestion of Motown artist Marvin Gaye after the band relocated to San Francisco in 1971.  He enjoyed a career in music that spanned five decades.

Maze released nine studio LPs from 1977 to 1993, all of which ranked among the top 10 in the U.S. R&B album sales and earned Gold certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Seven of the studio LPs were recorded for the Capitol Records label and the last two for Warner Brothers.

Maze also released two live albums while recording for Capitol Records and seven compilation LPs for Capitol and The Right Stuff labels.

Two studio albums, 1985’s Can’t Stop the Love and 1989’s Silky Soul, topped the R&B charts.

The band released several singles, two of which topped the U.S. R&B charts with Back in Stride in 1985 and Can’t Get Over You in 1989.

Although the band never won a Grammy, Beverly said the most important thing to him was live performances.

“When you’re cookin’, it starts cookin’. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the room,” Beverly often said. “It’s just a special thing. It’s probably the most powerful form of art.”

He most recently lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and performed in Philadelphia in July with Maze while headlining two shows at the Dell Music Center in Strawberry Mansion.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts presented Beverly with a bouquet of roses during one show and called him “by far my favorite artist ever.”

Beverly retired from music after doing a farewell tour with Maze called “I Wanna Thank You” and included guest appearances by El DeBarge and Chaka Khan.

Beverly said the band will continue without him as Maze Honoring Frankie Beverly. “He lived his life with pure soul as one would say, and for us, no one did it better,” the family wrote. “He lived for his music, family and friends. Love one another as he would want that for us all.”