All you ladies got your hair did,” Maxwell says flirtatiously, addressing the crowd of nearly 3,000 gathered to watch his sold-out show at the Horseshoe Hammond casino and hotel in Hammond, Indiana, the second date on his BLACKsummers’night tour. “You shining from the Vaseline. I see you, baby!” The dolled-up females in the audience self-consciously pat their intricately braided updos or run their fingers through their flowing manes, adjust their curve-hugging cocktail dresses and flash their beaming smiles. Every woman in the crowd seems to think Maxwell is courting her, telling her that she’s the “highest of the high,” that she’s the one with whom he wants to do a little sumthin’ sumthin’.
Completing the fantasy, Maxwell, too is dressed like he’s ready to do some serious wooing. On this stormy evening in mid-June, the Grammy-nominated singer, now 36, saunters around the stage in snug black trousers, a well-tailored black shirt, a dapper black blazer and white wingtip shoes. Gone are his bouncy trademark Afro and the bohemian beaded necklaces he once wore so well; instead, his close cut and dress shirt give him a more polished, sophisticated look.
- CELIA SAN MIGUEL
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