Maxwell still hasn’t watched his Tiny Desk concert, which debuted last August. “I am notorious for not watching things [because] I sometimes don’t like to watch myself,” he tells Rated R&B on a blazing summer afternoon.

During his 30-minute set, which has nearly six million views, the “Lifetime” singer confessed that he was nervous about performing. “I have not slept all night. I’m telling you 100 percent. I been up so nervous,” he told the crowd. “This is, to me, one of the most epic places to be. This is where real music can’t lie. Thank you for making this nervousness become appreciation, comfort, and security right now.”

At the time, Maxwell was quietly dealing with a medical issue, which had him wondering if he could hit all the right notes. “I was nervous because I didn’t know how I was going to sound, especially with what I had gone through prior,” he elaborates.

“I had a situation that I was kind of down for the count for three months, from about April of 2024 to July. Maybe a week before I would go into the studio to cut ‘Simply Beautiful,’ I was in bed, and couldn’t tell anybody because the [Serenade Tour] was already booked. I was like, ‘I hope I get better for this.’”

This “incredible transformation as a person,” as Maxwell describes it, brought greater clarity to how he viewed the world. “Health is so vital to being here,” he says. “When I was dealing with not having it be 100, it made me understand what makes life so great. I was blessed to be able to get up and do these things later. I approached it from a standpoint of great appreciation and also a no-nonsense approach.”

Unsurprisingly, Maxwell knocked out his Tiny Desk concert, performing iconic hits like “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” and “Pretty Wings.” The intimate performance, along with his Serenade Tour, helped inspire The Silent Serenade Ensemble, his limited-engagement shows set for this fall in Washington, D.C., and his hometown, Brooklyn.

Each performance will transport attendees to another dimension of Maxwell’s timeless hits and beloved deep cuts, reimagined with live percussion and a string quartet. “The ensemble always switches, but the setlist stays the same,” Maxwell teases. He and special guest Yola will play three nights at MGM National Harbor from Sept. 18-20, before concluding at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on Sept. 28.

“I’m just looking for new ways to be excited about being on stage and presenting music to people in a way that is unique and hopefully groundbreaking,” he shares. “We’ll see. I still got work to do.”

Before Maxwell hosts The Silent Serenade Ensemble, the Grammy winner will continue on the second leg of The Serenade Tour throughout the summer. He launched the first leg last fall, with special guests Jazmine Sullivan and October London, shortly after releasing his delightful cover of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay chart.

In Rated R&B’s exclusive interview with Maxwell, the legendary singer reflects on a new chapter, shares his love for D.C., previews The Silent Serenade Ensemble and looks ahead to 2026.

It’s an honor for me because you guys celebrate the genre that I am the most obsessed with and only wanted to do. I’m not interested in crossing over. I’m not interested in getting a pop audience. I love R&B, and that’s the music I’ve always loved to do, so I’m happy in this lane I’m in. I’m grateful to be speaking to you guys. I watch everything that you do.

I feel good. I feel like I’m walking through a new chapter — a new creative experience — that I didn’t expect to have with The Serenade Tour last year with the incredible Jazmine Sullivan and October London. I never saw so many generations of people in a room. I’m talking about people born in the 2000s, ‘90s, ‘80s, ‘70s, ‘60s, ‘50s, ‘40s. It blew my mind that so many kinds of people from so many times could connect with what we were all doing that night.

Honestly, when we did Tiny Desk. By the way, to this day, I haven’t watched it. I am notorious for not watching things [because] I sometimes don’t like to watch myself. But I was really blown away by how people loved that kind of presentation. I’ve always loved the Tiny Desk shows. Alex Isley just did an incredible one. There are so many people who come out there and kill it. It’s that part of music you miss sometimes because so much of the stuff is so manufactured in a way, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Sometimes it’s just nice to hear it right there, unfiltered. I wanted to sort of capture that again in a few shows that we can hopefully keep doing.

I was dealing with a medical issue. I had a situation that I was kind of down for the count for maybe three months, from about April 2024 to July, maybe a week before I [went to] the studio to cut “Simply Beautiful.” I was in bed, and couldn’t tell anybody because the [Serenade Tour] was already booked. I was like, “I hope I get better for this.” I was praying, but I went through an incredible transformation as a person. I started to see the world differently because health is so vital to being here. When I was dealing with not having it be 100, it made me understand what makes life so great. So I was blessed to be able to get up and do these things later.

I was nervous because I didn’t know how I was going to sound, especially with what I had gone through prior. I didn’t know if I was going to be what I needed to be for people. That’s usually my concern: Will I make people feel what they want to feel, and maybe bring them to a place that they never thought they could go in the performance? So that kept my ass up. But I rolled with it.

There’s an incredible culture there for Black culture. I’m always amazed at what it did for me [and] what it made me feel like — my self-esteem, my sense of self. People sometimes will say, “Hey, your music did this to me.” They have no idea what they did for me. They made me find worth in myself, purpose [and] a reason to be out here, which is very special. I’m just grateful to be back. That’s why we have to start in D.C. because it is that spot! We’re doing Brooklyn, and hopefully, if it catches on — I’m going to work my ass off to make sure it does — we’ll go around to different places and make it happen there.

It will be very different. Sometimes it’s reeds, sometimes it’s strings — and the strings can be harps, violins — sometimes it’s just a choir and a drummer. The ensemble always switches, but the setlist stays the same. So the challenge is arranging it in a way that provokes an emotional reaction and a connection from the audience. That’s why I’m interested in doing this.

It was kind of the brainchild of one of my friends I worked with. He’s a partner in business as well, but we’re good friends. He kind of brought up this idea, and I said, “Yeah, absolutely.” We did [MTV] Unplugged; we did [VH1] Storytellers. I was like, “Yeah, wouldn’t it be cool if we did a show that had a very acoustic sort of feel, but then very interesting instruments that you wouldn’t quite expect to be together creating that sound.” For me, I’m just looking for new ways to be excited about being on stage and presenting music to people in a way that is unique and hopefully groundbreaking.

I don’t think about the songs or the order. I think about the journey. I’m thinking about how we begin it and where I want them to go. I want them to understand all the levels and all the evolution of Black music and how so much music is Black music. In the world, so much of it, from hip-hop, country, blues, obviously R&B, soul, even Rock and roll is Black music. So my mind is saying, “How can I take everybody through this beautiful journey of the diaspora of music?” So that’s my goal.

It’s a very big ask in some ways, but I like to think as big as I can because even if I don’t reach it, at least it was bigger than not. We are putting it together. Again, the ensemble changes so much. I don’t think you’ve ever seen these instruments played together in this type of way. That’s what’s going to make it exciting. It’s going to be unique in that way in front of people. We call it Silent Serenade because it’s more acoustic. It’s not the loud electric feel to it, but there’s some slap to it.

My goal is to be as musically authentic as I can be in terms of my emotional presentation and how we jive together as a group, as a band [and] as an ensemble. I want them to feel what they want to feel; whatever they get to and whatever they go to is what I want them to [experience]. People have their own personal stories about why they connect with certain songs. I’m never sure as to why. I don’t even feel like I should be aware of that. I just feel I should give them the path to get to that space. Of course, I hope it’s a good place, but wherever it ends up being, it’s where I guess they need it to go.

I feel like I’m doing good when I am out of myself a bit. Time stops or time speeds, a combo of two. We recently [did a show] in Houston, and I was caught up in the spirit. I have never felt so able to do things to reach certain heights. That was special for me. I wasn’t really concerned about what I wanted people to feel like. I felt like what I hoped they could pick up through my presentation, my performance, and the music.

As a band, I work with such great people. I have to take a minute to just show my love. There’s my musical director, Shedrick Mitchell, who’s a genius organist. Then there’s Hod David, who’s the collaborator. We’ve written “…Til the Cops Come Knockin’, “Lake By the Ocean,” “Pretty Wings,” and “Lifetime.” There’s a lot of records he and I have done. There’s [Darryl “Lil Man” Howell] on drums, [Darrell “Free” Freeman] on bass, Travis Sayles on keys, and LaTina Webb on vocals. That’s my musical family. I think people can feel how much we care about what we’re trying to do for them. It’s not an ego thing, it’s just like, “Let’s do this. Let’s have fun.” Because life and the world are on some shit right now.

This one is crazy because it’s like The Isley Brothers. So listen, before I even put my first album out, I listened to The Isley Brothers every day, every night. It was like the masterclass of Urban Hang Suite, to a degree. There were so many things that played into that first album, and the way they recorded things, and obviously [Ronald Isley’s] voice and his falsetto and the fact they have rock elements [and] slow jams like nobody’s business.

This points back to what I’m talking about, which is how Black music is pretty much current music. I’m not trying to take anybody out in any way or diminish any other people or other contributors to music. I just feel like in this day and in this time, the best thing I can do is to celebrate Black excellence, Black music and Black culture as much as I can. That’s where my head is at. It doesn’t mean that I don’t love other people. In fact, it means I do love other people because by loving yourself and loving where you come from, you can then love others.

I want to thank you for that. I didn’t even know these were the anniversaries coming. It’s a crazy year coming, so I need to make some plans then, right? (laughs). But most definitely, I’m amazed, man. I just wanted to do something that was timeless, that didn’t fall into a category. I was hoping that the culture would connect with it. Many people didn’t think that would happen, but the audience showed them.

There’s so much that we come from that we sometimes get marginalized and focused in a particular way. I find it really interesting what people want to make Black music, how they want to make Black music popular, and what types of Black music they put a lot of money into. It’s great to see that there’s so many people out there who are doing great things with music that isn’t so obvious. I’m happy to be part of that.

I don’t really listen to myself. I don’t look at myself and see this whole thing that people might see. I’m just always starting something that’s flawed and just trying to get it to the good. And it’s not even always good until the audience makes it what they make it into. I never know what the songs will become. I didn’t know “Pretty Wings” would have the effect it had. I just wrote it and thought, “I think it’s OK.” But it’s the audience that said, “No, this is more than OK,” or whatever they end up feeling about some types of songs. I’m so blessed to be able to do what my passion is. I know that so many people don’t. In light of that blessing, I try to put a hundred percent in, and I hope it shows.

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