Neo-soul returns, smooth and supple

Everyone treats "neo-soul" like a dirty word. Shame, that.

Sure, the genre had funny hats and too many Fender Rhodes piano interludes (I'm looking at you, Jamiroquai).

But the Drambuie-soaked ambience of R&B's simmering heat, hip-hop's rhythmic cool, jazz's gymnastic breeziness and their combined attitudes made the world safe for geniuses of modern soul such as Raphael Saadiq, Cee-Lo Green and Maxwell.

Maxwell is the 35-year-old crooner/composer who between 1996 and 2001 released three cinematic classics of neo-soul, then dropped out for a while after that. It was a pity; he brought an art-rocker's eye to his self-penned mix of organic and synthetic soul and made the most of bizarre covers such as Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work."

Maybe he was waiting out the backlash or giving his complex, mood-swing melodies and aquatic atmospheres a chance to breathe. Maybe he just wanted to cut off his spiky dreads.

Tuxedo-clad with an un-knotted bow tie, Maxwell took the stage at Friday's sold-out show at Susquehanna Bank Center and proved he was a smoothie, outside and inside. While his sound was more reserved and traditional than in past shows, physically Maxwell was a hammy sensation, down on one knee, then the other during his slippery version of "Lifetime," posing model-style during the percolating "Sumthin' Sumthin'."

Though thrown off his game because of a cold, the throaty quality lent to Maxwell's higher notes seemed part of their wrung-dry emotionalism. With an ensemble of brass and reeds playing a lushly arranged, lean brand of soul, the grand effect was of Steely Dan backing a young Boz Scaggs. He shined through the fast flashing "No One" and the stewing mid-tempo "Get to Know Ya."

While cocktail-soul newbies "Pretty Wings" and "Bad Habits" proved Maxwell had lost none of his passion, an ambient gospel take on Al Green's "Simply Beautiful" showed Maxwell shaking foundations for a higher power.

Strawberry Mansion powerhouse Jazmine Sullivan opened the show. From first note to last, audience elders were wowed by the dynamics of Sullivan's range and her supple take on the mad "Bust Your Windows," and the sensual "Need U Bad."