Jill Scott, Maxwell paint two pictures of love at Wachovia Center

Comedian Guy Torry, in a brief stand-up routine opening for soul singers Jill Scott and Maxwell at the Wachovia Center Saturday night, described the potential effect of the show: Jill Scott will come on and make the women feel "empowered" and good about themselves, and then Maxwell will make them feel . . . well, from there the description turned sexually explicit.

Although Torry was going for laughs, he was accurate about the themes: Scott was the analytical, forthright lover, exploring the conflicted emotions of relationships; Maxwell the vulnerable but confident lothario, pledging fidelity or pleading for forgiveness. Ballads and slow jams, in classic soul mold, ruled.

For Scott, Saturday was a long-awaited homecoming. Since her last album, 2007's The Real Thing, the Philly native has been busy acting, including her starring role in HBO's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (she elicited cheers when noting that the series would soon return). She has a new album, The Light of the Sun, due later this year, and new songs provided several highlights in her 80-minute set.

Backed by a classy 11-piece band with harmonies from a creamy-voiced male trio, Scott spanned her 10-year career, from the strutting funk of "It's Love" and the softly meditative then operatic "He Loves Me (Lyzel in E flat)," to the precise, intense "Crown Royal" and the Stevie Wonder-quoting "Golden," to new songs such as the captivating, prayerful piano ballad "Hear My Call," and handclap-driven "I Love You."

Maxwell leaned heavily on last year's excellent BLACKsummers'night during his 85-minute set. Dressed in a crisp gray suit, dancing and skipping across the stage, falling to his knees in supplication, he exuded confidence and joy. The New Yorker acknowledged his debt to Al Green in covering "Simply Beautiful," nodded toward Marvin Gaye's socially conscious soul in "Help Somebody," and showed off his sexy, Prince-ly falsetto on a stripped-down version of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" that featured Robert Glasper's piano-playing.

After "Fistful of Tears," one of the numerous sexy slow jams, Maxwell stated the obvious: "This show is about love."

But he was disingenuous when he said with a smile, "All you fellows don't want to be here. I wouldn't want to see me, either."

Soul music, at its best, has always been gender-blind.