ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 10, 1998
By Steve Newton
On the cover of Lenny Kravitz’s new CD, 5, the dreadlocked rocker is pictured lounging in the back seat of a car while a white urban landscape blurs by in the rear window. The image is an apt one, because when I contact Kravitz to chat about the disc, he’s in another car–or maybe the same one–cruising the streets of New York, taking his grandfather out to Brooklyn.
That’s where Kravitz, the half-Jewish, half-Bahamian son of TV producer Sy Kravitz and actress Roxie Roker (Helen on The Jeffersons), was born. Having parents in the entertainment biz provided some serious early perks for the aspiring musician.
“They’re the ones that exposed me to [music],” says Kravitz. “I grew up seeing lots of great concerts, and being exposed to theatre and the arts in general. There was a lot of things going on musically at that time, and I got to see everybody from James Brown at the Apollo to Duke Ellington, and the Jackson Five at Madison Square Garden. People like Ella and Count Basie and Miles, you know, just great stuff.”
Kravitz’s mother passed away recently, but he keeps her memory alive on 5 with the tender “Thinking of You”, in which he lovingly contemplates the afterlife. “Tell me mama, are the colors deeper shades?/And tell me mama are there great big brass parades?/Does the sun shine night and day?”
The tune is incredibly touching, but Kravitz didn’t agonize over its sensitive lyrics in the songwriting process.
“It came out quite naturally,” he explains. “And it’s not a sad song, it’s a celebration of her life.”
On “Thinking of You”, the DIY-oriented Kravitz handles lead and background vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, drums, bass, Fender Rhodes, and “green Heineken bottles”.
“I was looking for cowbells,” he relates, “and we didn’t have any in the studio at the time, so I was looking for something that would make a clinking sound, and those were layin’ around. So, you know, use whatcha got.”
Kravitz has taken that motto to heart ever since his 1989 debut, Let Love Rule. As he has on all his albums, Kravitz occupies himself with an impressive array of instruments on 5–some conventional, some not. As well as the previously mentioned ones, he handles Hammond organ, synthesizers, mellotron, clavinet, finger cymbals, gong, congas, and “sandpaper blocks”. He’s not the type to hire session players to do what he can do himself.
“I’ve been blessed with the gift to play instruments,” he says “so it’s something that I do because I’m able to do it.”
Although Kravitz kept his instrumental workload heavy, he took a more leisurely approach to recording the funky 5 than on previous discs. The CD took eight months to produce, but when you’re laying down tracks near the beach in the Bahamas, who needs to rush?
“It’s nice to be in that atmosphere,” admits Kravitz, who also recorded parts of 5 in the Big Apple. “It’s very beautiful, and people can’t drop by, you know. It’ not like New York; not a lot of distractions.”
Afer spending so much time working on an album, Kravitz likes to unwind onstage–as he will when he plays the sold-out Plaza of Nations on Saturday (September 12). His previous road excursion was as part of a H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) tour, along with the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, Taj Mahal, King Crimson, and fellow New Yorkers Blues Traveler. Kravitz had a good time on that tour.
“It was very laid back,” he notes, “a summertime kinda thing outdoors. I got to jam with a lot of different peope, and we rode our motorcycles on that tour, which was great. So it was kinda like hangin’ out for the summer.”
Although Kravitz probably pulled in his fair share of fans to the H.O.R.D.E. gigs, it was five years ago–when the Hendrix-y “Are You Gonna Go My Way” ruled the airwaves–that his crowd-drawing power reached its peak. At that point he headlined a tour that found him playing the Pacific Coliseum at a gig that will live in local infamy because Shannon Hoon–the late lead vocalist with openers Blind Melon–got naked and piddled in the front row’s general direction. Kravitz hasn’t forgotten that gig either, but he downplays the headline-making urination.
“It’s unfortunate what happened to him,” is all he offers, solemnly referring to Hoon’s 1995 drug-overdose death in New Orleans.
During his career, Kravitz has had plenty of different artists warming up his stage–though none in quite so intimate a manner. “The most incredible gift I had was having Robert Plant open for me in Europe,” he relates, “and I’m very happy to have my friend Sean Lennon opening on a lot of this tour. It should be interesting.”
Lennon–then billed as Sean Ono Lennon-performed on Kravitz’s 1991 abum, Mama Said, and is now winning critical raves for his own recording career. (“I always knew he would,” claims Kravitz.)
But Lennon won’t be opening for Kravitz in Vancouver; that honour goes to the exotically named Ozomatli. “I’ve never seen them before,” admits Kravitz, “but I believe they’re a Mexican band, and they have like a carnival vibe, which is kinda cool. I dig it.”
As Kravitz’s car snakes its way into the heart of Brooklyn, our tenuous cel-phone connection alters more frequently, so I steer the conversation toward a wrap-up. But first I want to know who Kravitz has been listening to in his spare time lately. With the encroaching interference, it sounds as if he mentions Alannah Myles, which surprises me somwhat, since I’d expected artists of more substance.
“Alannah Myles?” I repeat, seeking clarification. “Not Alannah Myles, no,” he corrects, “a lotta Miles. Miles Davis.”
Oh, yeah. Gotcha. Over and out.
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