Personnel: Maxwell (vocals); G/Mo (guitar); Gloria Agostini (harp); Gerald Tarack, Matthew Raimondi, Veronica Salas (violin); Susan Poliacik (cello); Andre Roberson (saxophone); Russell Gunn (trumpet); Darrell Smith (Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Michael Neal (bass); Kerry Griffin (drums); Angel Luis Figueroa (percussion); Michael Dickerson, La Tina Webb, Khaliq (background vocals).
Recorded live at The Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Brooklyn, New York on May 7, 1997.
"Whenever Whenever Whenever" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Riding the wave of young turks delving into old-school soul that includes D'Angelo, Eryka Badu and Adriana Evans, Maxwell's URBAN HANG SUITE heralded the arrival of a balladeer who combined Al Green's seductiveness with Prince's sensuality. MTV UNPLUGGED shows off the live side of this young free spirit whose musical roots reach through the Quiet Storm into some pretty unlikely places. Throughout this EP, the arrangements are lush, the horns caress every groove and Maxwell's creamy falsetto ducks and feints through his own "Whenever Wherever Whatever" and "The Lady Suite." He also takes time to give props to Kate Bush with a crystalline reading of "This Woman's Work." Showing off a knack for the unorthodox, Maxwell closes out the festivities with a completely transformed cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" that moves from a jazz/funk workout to a gospel feel.
