Maxi Jazz
British musician, rapper and singer (1957–2022)
Maxwell Alexander Fraser (14 June 1957 – 23 December 2022), better known by his stage name Maxi Jazz, was a British musician, rapper, singer, songwriter and DJ. He was the lead vocalist of British electronic band Faithless from 1995 to 2011 and 2015 to 2016.
Music career
Hip hop beginnings
Maxi Jazz was born Maxwell Alexander Fraser on 14 June 1957 in Hackney, East London, and moved to Brixton, South London when he was a toddler. He founded the Soul Food Café System as a DJ in 1984, having discovered hip hop a year earlier. He first aired the sound as a DJ calling it "In the Soul Kitchen with DJ Maxi Jazz" on pirate radio station Reach FM London from 1985 to 1986. He transferred this sound to pirate radio station LWR in 1987.
In 1989, the Soul Food Café Band was picked up by Tam Tam Records, which is the dance wing of Savage Records. Jazz founded Namu Records in 1992 to release the band's material in the form of three EPs and the band toured as a support act to various artists, including Jamiroquai in Amsterdam, Soul II Soul in Barcelona, Galliano in Switzerland, and Jason Rebello in Brazil. In 1996, Maxi Jazz and the Soul Food Cafe recorded and released the album Original Groovejuice Vol. 1 with Revco Records in Deptford, South London. After the band dissolved, Jazz worked throughout Europe, and took time out to collaborate with Jah Wobble on the Invaders of the Heart album, followed by live dates with the Wobble Collective.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Maxi Jazz” as british musician, rapper and singer (1957–2022). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british musician, rapper and singer (1957–2022). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1346160. VIAF identifies the subject as 53834447. The Library of Congress control number is no2003032132. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 2022, 1995 and 2011.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Maxi Jazz”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Maxi Jazz primary sources, Maxi Jazz archive and Maxi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Maxi Jazz”?
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- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Maxi Jazz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.