Frankie Beverly and Maze

Lots of acts call themselves the music industry's "best-kept secret," but Frankie Beverly and Maze make a convincing claim to the title. After thirty years, the Bay Area R&B collective continues to thrive live, despite being consistently ignored by pop radio — its biggest crossover exposure probably came via the 1988 Rob Base and EZ Rock hip-hop hit "Joy & Pain," which illegally sampled the Maze song of the same title — and without any new releases. But Beverly's brand of mellow soul (he pioneered the genre now known as "quiet storm") remains a comforting constant in the ever-changing music biz.