The name Maxi Jazz should mean nothing to many people, neither today nor when the musician had his heyday, that was in the mid-nineties. But a few notes of the single “Insomnia” should be enough for everyone to remember: Ah, that one That was. Initially only known in England’s club scene, the striking house song, in which Maxi Jazz appeared as a rapper, was played in almost all clubs and discos. In Germany, too, it rose to number 2 in the charts.
Now Maxi Jazz has died at the age of 65. “We are heartbroken that Maxi Jazz passed away peacefully at his home in south London last night,” his bandmates wrote on the group’s official social media accounts on Christmas Eve. “He gave our music the right meaning and message.” Jazz, whose real name was Maxwell Fraser, was a brilliant lyricist, DJ, moral compass and genius.
The band was formed in 1995. The first two albums “Reverence” from 1996 and “Sunday 8PM” from 1998 were huge successes, not only in the dance and house community, but also far into the musical mainstream. In those days, Faithless were headlining some of the biggest music festivals in the world, including Britain’s Glastonbury Festival. In the years that followed, the band produced another five studio albums, which were not quite as successful.