Recording
Recording sessions for the album took place in 1994 and 1995 at Electric Lady Studios, RPM Studios, Sorcerer Studios and Chung King Studios in New York City, and at CRC Studios in Chicago, Illinois. Its production was primarily handled by record producer P.M. and Maxwell who is credited as "MUSZE", a play on the word muse. Columbia executives reluctantly gave Maxwell creative freedom in his contract and were hesitant to allow him produce the album alone. They assigned Chicago-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Matthewman to the project, but he only produced the first few tracks. Matthewman had previously worked with English R&B and jazz group Sade. During the recording sessions, Maxwell worked extensively with collaborators, including Matthewman, soul singer-songwriter Leon Ware, and funk guitarist Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin. Prior to working with Maxwell, Ware and Ragin were collaborators of soul musician Marvin Gaye; Ware had produced and composed most of Gaye's tenth album I Want You (1976).
Production assistance and instrumentation from such veteran session musicians contributed significantly to Urban Hang Suite's vintage overtones and classic R&B influences. Matthewman and Maxwell played several instruments during recording for the album, including guitar, drums, saxophone, bass, and keyboards. They also composed three of the album's eleven tracks together. After the recording sessions ended in March 1995, Urban Hang Suite was mixed by P.M. and audio engineer Mike Pela, after which it was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York City.
Read more about this topic: Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite
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“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
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“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)