By Sun Singleton

Twitter is all the rage and superstars like Maxwell are making use of the mobile social-networking platform to shine light on fellow visionaries making music beneath the mainstream radar.
Grammy-winning soul singer Maxwell’s much-ballyhooed return to music was 2009’s version of Sade’s divine comeback this year, it was like “okay, mainstream soul actually can still offer listeners subtlety, virtuosity and glamour.”

In truth, Maxwell and Sade’s return to soul music within a year of each other felt like soul music lovers were finally being treated to some authentic soul food after a daily Dollar-Meal diet of Auto-Tune offerings from a trendy plethora of rappers singing and singers rapping on the radio. It was a relief to rediscover that magic could still be channeled into this music. Two credible soul icons of the Nineties re-emerged after  decade-long sabbaticals, and soul music lovers everywhere were thrilled to welcome them back to their bedroom playlists.

Of course a few things have changed this time around. Microblogging, for instance, was not a part of the media landscape back in 1996 when Urban Hang Suite first dropped. But I must admit that I regularly check out Maxwell’s Twitter page, @_Maxwell_. It’s a total fan-girl thing for me. I devour his random tweets about life on the road or his calls for donations to the Red Cross’ rebuilding efforts in Haiti and Chile (“socially-engaged” is the new-old sexy) and all the while I’m crushing like a fourteen-year-old. As a striving indie soul singer myself, it’s also heartening to read Maxwell’s tweets bigging up his fellow musicians, be they megastars like Drake, Sade, or Alicia Keys, blazing up-and-comers like Chrisette Michelle and Laura Izibor (both of whom opened a leg of Maxwell 2009 world tour) or underappreciated talents like former Floetry songstress Marsha Ambrosius @MARSHAAMBROSIUS and the veteran soul singer/guitarist Tweet (who was using that name years before the launch of Twitter.)

Over the past year or so, Maxwell has shared with his one-hundred-thousand-plus followers a desire to tour with Georgia Anne Muldrow, @jahjahmuldrow, a Los Angeles-based singer/producer whose unique “soul and hip-hop meets spiritual jazz” sound has earned her a strong buzz on the Internet and sparked high-profile collaborations with major stars like Erykah Badu and Mos Def, each of whom respectively featured her on their latest albums. Last year in a press conference, he mentioned the up-and-coming singer to his fans. (He also talks about “a new wave of substance” in soul music @5:30.)

In effect, Maxwell tweeting about Georgia Anne Muldrow to his followers on Twitter is a subtly altruistic act—it piques the interest of his enormous fanbase in her music.  And other artists have benefitted from Maxwell’s influence as welll. After the singer wrote a tweet praising the new album by his bandmate Robert Glasper, a major pianist in the modern jazz world who is less known in pop music circles, Maxwell’s props helped Glasper’s album, Double-booked, debut at #1 on iTunes in late August. And “All Matter,” his electrifying song with the vocalist Bilal, was nominated for a 2009 Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. Back in February of this year the prominent UK-based radio host Giles Peterson talked with Glasper on his BBC show Worldwide about the success of the album. Glasper cited Maxwell’s positive tweets as essential to getting Double-Booked to its #1 chart position on iTunes and exposing his music to new fans. Those tiny twitter-birds have the power to give new music “little wings.”



Just how strong an impact Maxwell’s “positive plugging” on Twitter will have on the careers of these lesser-known artists is yet unknown, but it does point to the endless possibilities that online social networking on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace offer soul musicians who want to support each other and expose new paradigm-shifting sounds to the masses.

Fats Domino . R&B . Rock & Roll This Day in Soul