NEW ORLEANS — In a sea of white in the 6th Ward, New Orleansians celebrated the life of Frankie Beverly, the frontman of the iconic band MAZE, with a mixture of joy and pain.
The sheer number of people who attended the "Jazz Funeral" caught the attention of people across the social media stratosphere, with most marveling at the celebration and others questioning the famed New Orleans tradition—mostly, the cardboard cutout of Frankie Beverly inside a clear casket.
"You know what, being from the Tremé community we are known for having Jazz funerals," says Hollis Burton, a member of the 6th Ward Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Club. "So we showcased the city, the Tremé community, and the 6th ward around the world. This is what we do in our city for people that we love."
The celebration of life is one of the largest seen for an honorary New Orleanian.
By the end of the second line, people were left with "Happy Feelings" in the air. "We know how many people love Frankie Beverly in the city of New Orleans," says Burton. "So we as New Orleanians could not just let it go down without giving him a New Orleans second line."
The second line came one week after many learned the soul singer had passed away. Massive crowds gathered at Hunter's Field on Claiborne Avenue to give Beverly a proper send-off.
"His music is like the spirit of New Orleans," says Kenard Landry, member of the 6th Ward Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Club. "His style, his grace, what he brings to the city. I think that's the reason why we call him Uncle Frankie."
The Live in New Orleans album was recorded at the Saenger Theater. It became Maze's fifth gold-certified album, going to No. 3 on the Billboard R&B Chart. Audiences of New Orleanians swayed to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly as they performed songs that would become the soundtracks to their lives.
Frankie Beverly can be heard saying of the choice to record the live album in New Orleans:
"You have made us and you have sort of taken us over. We're doing this live album, and somebody asked me the other night, "Why do a live album in New Orleans?" I said, "Well, why not, ya digg."
"A lot of major artists do not release live albums recorded in this city. They did," says Melissa Weber, Music Historian. "They didn't have to, but they did, and we're still talking about it, and we're still talking about him."
Melissa says the love affair between New Orleans and Maze, featuring Frankie Beverly, started years before the band's live album was released. Frankie even credits New Orleans for the band's success.
"It goes back all the way to their debut album that came out in 1977," says Melissa. "He would explain that that debut album went Gold on the strength of New Orleanians, Black New Orleanians, and people in the surrounding region, here in Louisiana, purchasing that album."
In an interview 20 years ago with New Orleans' own OffBeat Magazine, Frankie is quoted saying in part:
"The first album came out, Happy Feelings, in 1977, and it spread like a disease in that town. Our first tour—it was a promotional tour—was Mobile, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans because that's where the album was selling the most. So, we went down there and played a club, and the guy that owned it promoted us at the Municipal Auditorium. And wow—it was like we were already there. It was our first record, and you would have never known that."
"When you think about the music of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, it's very laid back," says Melissa. "It's soulful, but it's really laid back. They came out in the late 70s, which is a time in Black music where there was a lot of up-tempo party music, and all Frankie Beverly was singing about was real life and love and joy and pain and happy feelings and beauty surrounding us. Those types of thoughts and energies just resonated because New Orleans is different from everywhere else."
Pianist Davell Crawford, a musical prodigy and the grandson of James "Sugar Boy" Crawford of "Jock-A-Mo" fame, says even though the band reached a level of superstardom, there was always a drawback to New Orleans and not just on the Essence Festival and Jazz Festival stages.
Some of my family members met them early on in their careers, says Crawford. My mom and my aunts would fix gumbo and bell peppers. They'd come to hang out and eat. You'd see them hanging out on Canal Street across from the Le Meridian hotel, hanging out in there all day. Frankie was an everyday guy, and the guys in his band were everyday people."
Even with that knowledge, when McKinley "Bug" Williams, an original member of MAZE, asked Davell to write a song for Frankie when he wasn't even a pre-teen, Davell said he couldn't believe it.
"I wrote the song, copyrighted it. I didn't send it to McKinley. I didn't send it. I didn't think I was worthy enough. I loved Frankie Beverly. I loved the band, but I didn't think I was worthy enough to send Frankie Beverly a song."
Eventually, Davell did send the song "A Little Rain Must Fall," and he says both Bug and Frankie loved it, but they needed one thing: a bridge. "I was a child, I didn't think about a bridge," says Crawford. I remember my Grandfather teaching me. I found it very odd. I was like, I don't even want to write a bridge."
The musical stylings of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly became a staple in Black households, constantly pushing the band to the top of the R&B charts. However, they didn't experience much crossover success, and Melissa doesn't think that's due to a lack of talent.
"In order for that to have happened, perhaps, and Frankie Beverly knew this, he would have had to compromise his sound some way and he never compromised," says Weber. "And that is appreciated too, because he loved the fan base that supported him and grew over decades. It wasn't static. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger from the original fans to their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.
Whether it's Beyoncé covering Maze's hit "Before I Let Go" or The Hot 8 Brass Band in their rendition of "We Are One," Maze featuring Frankie Beverly gets people from every generation on their feet.
Though the lead singer is gone, New Orleans will never truly let him go.
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