Tickets are available here

NEW YORK, New York /PRNewswire/ — Maxwell will return to the road in late September for a series of select North American concert dates, his first since wrapping a sold-out summer tour in early August. Maxwell’s highly anticipated autumn tour kicks off at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on September 25 (please see itinerary following).

BLACKsummers’night, the artist’s long-awaited fourth studio album, entered the Billboard Top 200 at #1 following its release on July 7 and has achieved RIAA Gold status, having sold more than 500,000 copies since its release.

Moving his classic R&B production from theaters to arenas for the second leg of his BLACKsummers’night North American tour, Maxwell’s autumn concerts will feature multiple Grammy winning, R&B/rap artist Common providing main support, and 2009 Best Urban/Alternative Performance Grammy winner Chrisette Michele as opening act.

Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night Fall Tour w/ Common and Chrisette Michele:

Fri Sept 25 Toronto Air Canada Centre
Sat Sept 26 Detroit Joe Louis Arena (w/o Common)
Mon Sept 28 New York Madison Square Garden
Wed Sept 30 Richmond Richmond Coliseum
Fri Oct 2 Washington DC Verizon Center
Sat Oct 3 Philadelphia Wachovia Spectrum (w/o Common)
Mon Oct 5 Atlanta Phillips Arena
Tue Oct 6 Charlotte Time Warner Cable Arena
Thu Oct 8 Chicago United Center
Fri Oct 9 St. Louis Scottrade Center
Mon Oct 12 Dallas TBA
Tue Oct 13 Houston Toyota Center
Fri Oct 16 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl
Sat Oct 17 San Francisco TBA

Additional tour dates and information TBA.

Maxwell’s 2009 autumn shows mark the artist’s second run of full length concerts since breaking a then-six-year hiatus from live performance in October 2008 with a standing-room-only US tour. Maxwell’s riveting live performances were met with unanimously positive critical responses. The New York Times praised Maxwell’s Radio City Music Hall concert as “exquisite” and “powerful” while the Boston Herald lauded his “awesome talent.”

The first leg of Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night tour generated rave reviews from coast-to-coast:

“Maxwell and his band ruled,” wrote the Albany Times-Union. “Magnificent.”

“Any fears that Maxwell’s retreat after ‘Now’ in 2001 was the end of an era had been laid to rest,” observed the Arizona Republic. “In fact, you almost had to wonder if the man’s just getting started….”

The Columbus Ohio Call & Post said, “Maxwell proved that he’s still got it after almost a decade away from the music scene.”

“Everyone was there to see Maxwell,” wrote the Buffalo News, “and not a face in the crowd wasn’t left grinning.”

According to the Austin Chronicle, “…Maxwell still epitomizes the sound that defined the neo soul genre.”

“Clearly, Maxwell’s newly shorn locks had not resulted in a Samson-like depletion of mojo,” penned the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “He made sure the audience got its groove on, too.”

BLACKsummers’night is the second consecutive Maxwell album to enter the Billboard 200 at #1, the long-awaited successor to 2001′s similarly chart-topping Now. With first week’s sales of 316,499, according to SoundScan, BLACKsummers’night generated the best overall sales week of Maxwell’s career. BLACKsummers’night peaked at #1 on the SoundScan Album Retailer chart and the Current R&B chart.

Released on Tuesday, July 7, on CD and in a Limited Edition Deluxe CD/DVD set, BLACKsummers’night is already generating hit singles. The first, “Pretty Wings,” rocketed to the #1 slot on America’s Urban Adult radio stations after completing an earlier run as the nation’s #1 Greatest Gainer/Most-Added song at the Urban Mainstream format. “Pretty Wings” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart, and is currently #2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it’s spent 13 weeks.

“Bad Habits,” the lead track and second single from BLACKsummers’night, reached #1 Most-Added song at Urban Adult radio according to Mediabase, the music industry’s first mass-airplay monitoring service. Both “Bad Habits” and “Pretty Wings” have made the Top 10 of America’s Urban Adult Contemporary charts with “Bad Habits” peaking at #7 and “Pretty Wings” locking down the #1 slot.

BLACKsummers’night reached #1 on the iTunes R&B Albums chart while “Pretty Wings” hit #1 on the iTunes R&B Singles chart.

BLACKsummers’night is the sensuous opening installment of the artist’s monumental BLACKSUMMERS’NIGHT trilogy. (The trilogy’s subsequent chapters, blackSUMMERS’night and blacksummers’NIGHT, are slated for release in 2010 and 2011 respectively.)

BLACKsummers’night reunites Maxwell with long-time collaborator Hod David, who serves as co-producer and co-writer of the album. Striving for an emotional authenticity and real world sound for the album, Maxwell and Hod recorded the entire album live in the studio with an a-list ensemble of elegantly sympathetic musicians.

The press response to BLACKsummers’night has been ecstatic:

“Grittier, more grown-up, and more experimental with an album of soulfulness and substance.” – Jon Pareles, The New York Times

“His mostly laid-back music remains potent, mixing introspection, melancholy, and desire.” – Chris Farley, Wall Street Journal

“BLACKsummers’night finds Maxwell smoothly picking up where he left off, his moves familiar yet still irresistible. Silky vocals. . .make this one exquisite listening experience. What the hell have people been making love to since Maxwell went away?” – Chuck Arnold, People

“A powerful dose of heartbroken soul.” – Simon Vozick-Levinson, Entertainment Weekly

“BLACKsummers’night reminds you why Maxwell is the premiere R&B vocalist of his generation.” – Ken Capobianco, Boston Globe

“BLACKsummers’night evokes the complex late ’70s albums of Marvin Gaye, when the singer was making his most deeply personal music.” – Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

“Few modern singers put so much soul and feeling into such righteous grooves.” – Matt Pais, Metromix

Maxwell began redefining classic soul music for a new generation with the release of his critically-acclaimed debut album, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, in April 1996. Fueled in part by the RIAA gold single, “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder),” the Grammy-nominated Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite was certified platinum in March 1997, less than a year after its release, and achieved double platinum status, in recognition of sales of more than 2 million copies in the US alone, in 2002. Maxwell followed up with his MTV Unplugged EP, released in July 1997 and certified gold in September 1999. His second full-length album, Embrya, was released in June 1998 and certified platinum in May 1999. Another Maxwell single, the hit “Fortunate,” was certified gold in June 1999. His third studio album, Now, entered the Billboard 200 at #1 in August 2001. To date, Maxwell has achieved 10 gold and platinum certifications from the RIAA for his albums and singles.

SOURCE Columbia Records

CHRISETTE’s NEW ALBUM EPIPHANY DEBUTS AT #1 !!

Follow-up to I AM debut album of 2007, with Grammy-winning “Be OK”

Tickets are available here

NEW YORK, New York July 8 /PRNewswire/ — Grammy Award-winning Def Jam recording artist Chrisette Michele, who continues to tour the U.S. aggressively this summer in support of her brand new second album EPIPHANY – has been chosen as the opening act for one of the highest profile tours of 2009, as she joins fellow neo-soul artist Maxwell on the road in support of his 8-year comeback album, BLACKsummers’night (released July 7th).

Soulful, jazz-influenced vocalist Chrisette’s 20-day, 14-city tour with Maxwell opens July 12th at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and concludes at Miami’s Waterfront Theater on July 31st. (Please see dates below.) The tour immediately follows Chrisette’s most recent 17-city May-June itinerary with fellow Grammy winner Anthony Hamilton and neo-soulman Musiq Soulchild. 2009 marks the third consecutive summer that Chrisette has won prime billing spots on tour – after playing out with Raheem DeVaughan from May-July 2008, and with Musiq in July-August 2007.

EPIPHANY debuted at #1 Soundscan following its arrival in the physical and digital marketplace on May 5th. The album built on the success of its Top 10 Adult R&B title tune hit “Epiphany (I’m Leaving),” co-written by fellow Def Jam artist Ne-Yo and producer Chuck Harmony. The second single was “What You Do” (featuring Ne-Yo), whose video co-starred Pooch Hall of the CW sitcom The Game.

Chrisette celebrated EPIPHANY’s breakthrough with TV appearances in May on CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman, NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the CBS Early Show. In April, she appeared on VH1 Soulstages: Chrisette Michele presented by Infiniti.

EPIPHANY follows up Chrisette’s RIAA gold debut album I AM (released June 2007). The album, produced by multi-platinum 10-time Grammy Award winner Babyface, contained the R&B and AC hits “If I Have My Way,” “Best Of Me” and “Be OK” (featuring will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas). “Be OK” went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. Full-length versions of “If I Have My Way” and “Best Of Me” can be heard on Chrisette’s MySpace site, http://www.myspace.com/chrisettemichele, along with three other tracks from I AM (“Love Is You,” “Your Joy,” “Good Girl”) as well as “Epiphany (I’m Leaving).” The MySpace site has logged more than 3.1 million Profile Views, and more than 9.5 million Total Plays.

CHRISETTE MICHELE ON TOUR WITH MAXWELL

Date City Venue

July 12 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
13 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace Theatre
15 Columbus, OH Palace Theater
16 Cleveland, OH Allen Theater
18 Pittsburgh, PA Heinz Hall
19 Buffalo, NY Shea’s Performing Arts Center
21 Albany, NY The Palace
22 Newark, NJ NJ Performing Arts Center
24 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Events Center
25 Ledyard, CT Foxwoods Casino
27 Norfolk, VA Chrysler Hall
28 Savannah, GA Johnny Mercer
30 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
31 Miami, FL Waterfront Theater

SOURCE Island Def Jam Music Group