Maxi Jazz, DJ, rapper and lead singer for UK electronic band Faithless, has died aged 65.
As RA reports, Faithless confirmed the news earlier today, December 24th, via social media. No cause of death was given. “We’re heartbroken to say Maxi Jazz died peacefully at his home in South London last night,” they wrote via Jazz’s accounts. “He was a man who changed our lives in so many ways. He gave proper meaning and message to our music.”
Born Maxwell Alexander Fraser in Brixton in 1957, Jazz began his career as a hip-hop DJ in the ’80s before meeting Rollo Armstrong and cofounding Faithless, along with Sister Bliss and Jamie Catto, in 1995. His Buddhist faith was integral to his creativity, inspiring his socially conscious and politically engaged lyrics on hits such as “We Come 1,” “God Is A DJ” and “Insomnia,” which he said took him less than an hour to write and record.
