Only Keith Flint and Maxim of the Prodigy rivalled Jazz in his command of the stage at the helm of a superstar 90s dance act – but there was more to him than his ability to energise a crowd
• Maxi Jazz, lead singer of Faithless, dies aged 66
Of all the artists who commanded the stage as dance music became big business in the 1990s, Maxi Jazz was in a class of his own. It wasn’t just that the Faithless frontman was an imposing vocalist: his sonorous tone and steady enunciation made that a given. While the group’s first two albums, Reverence and Sunday 8PM, delivered award nominations and a parade of Top 20 singles, it was on stage where Faithless minted their reputation as an elite-level act.
Born Maxwell Fraser in 1957, Maxi Jazz – as he had become known since stints on pirate radio in the mid-1980s – was nearly 40 years old by the time Faithless formed in 1995. The practising Buddhist’s air of pacific wisdom positioned him as a spiritual counter to the spangled masses who came to bear witness as the band’s popularity soared. The energy of an entire arena would flow through Fraser, this calm eye of a rave storm.
