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 One
of the preeminent rock musicians of our time, Lenny Kravitz
is a legendary rock icon whose bold, channeling sound has
transcended genre, style, race and class. His music is
devastatingly rich with the influences of '60s and '70s soul,
rock and funk, and yet, each one of his six previous studio
albums have communicated the urgency of their current years. As
Lenny Kravitz's 2000 release, the wildly successful
triple-platinum GREATEST HITS album proved, those songs have
consistently resonated onward into a timeless catalog. Now Lenny
Kravitz releases his seventh studio album, BAPTISM, and with a
career that spans fifteen years since the release of his 1989
debut album, LET LOVE RULE, he has finally come full circle.
"It's strange, man, but I've made my first record all over
again," he says. "That's how it feels, as pure as the
beginning." Kravitz's music is robust and driven by an emotional
core that materializes in soulful riffs and soaring vocals. From
the start, he has consistently redefined his sound, never
painting the same picture twice, never using the same colors.
"It's not a conscious point, but I'm not into repeating myself,"
Kravitz says. "Once I do something, I've done it and I just want
to continue on." That attitude has rewarded Kravitz with an
unparalleled musical appeal. All of his albums have been
certified either platinum or multi-platinum.
From 1999 to
2002, he won an astounding four consecutive Grammy Awards
[deservedly so], setting a record for the most wins in the "Best
Male Rock Vocal Performance" category for his single "Dig In"
(previously winning for "Again," "American Woman" and "Fly
Away"), and representing one of the most successful stretches of
recognition for any musician in the awards ceremony's history.
In 2003, he received his fifth Grammy nomination in the category
for "If I Could Fall In Love" off his last studio album, LENNY.
Kravitz's appeal also reaches his peers. His collaborative
efforts are as varied as his own influences having worked with
everyone from Madonna, Slash and Jay-Z, to N.E.R.D, P. Diddy and
many others.
 Like
all great records,
the seeds of BAPTISM came from
personal epiphany. Kravitz had spent several months in the early
part of 2003 in Miami working on songs for an all-out, dedicated
funk album. But then in the fall of 2003, his initial direction
transformed into unexpected revelations when Kravitz visited his
old hometown... New York City. The entire trip was a total throwback to an
earlier time in his life when he was a burgeoning musician,
working on what would be his groundbreaking and critically
acclaimed debut album, LET LOVE RULE. "Ultimately things change
in life, but I really missed that feeling," Kravitz says. "There
I was, riding my bike around the city and I felt the way I did
fifteen years ago." Kravitz found more than nostalgic comfort in
that trip: he found a gateway to simplicity. "When I returned to
Miami, I picked up my acoustic guitar and just started playing
riffs,"
he remembers. "All these tunes started coming out two, four,
five, eight." Kravitz went to his Miami studio and started to
explore what these songs could become. "I realized what I needed
to do had to be done now," he says. "It was urgent. It was just
flowing out so I let the creative process take over." The funk
album could wait. With BAPTISM, Kravitz is reborn. He comes full
circle in his career, ready to close out one cycle and embrace
the beginning of another. With its charged, elegant rock 'n
roll, its brazen riffs and heartfelt lyrics, Kravitz has made a
revealing album that stands as a tribute to the basics in life.
Delivered with the craft he's mastered throughout his career,
the music of BAPTISM leaps from the speakers.
 Kravitz
wrote and recorded the album over the course of the year.
"Everything just came together," he explains. "I would go in to
lay down dummy vocals over the music, but then the words would
just come out. It was very very open. All of the instruments on
BAPTISM were played by Kravitz (save for string sections and
saxophones): every thumping bass line, to every lofty drum kick
and cool rocketing guitar riff. Kravitz's multi-instrumentalism
is one of the most overlooked aspects of his extraordinary
musicianship and a thrusting energy source in the album. "Where
Are We Runnin'?," the first single from BAPTISM, is a
groove-laden anthem that, true to Kravitz's style, beats with
grinding riffs and struts with the stage-high blues calls of old
soul greats. From the song's first thundering drums to the
whirling rockabilly piano solo at its end, it is a blissful
slice of rock 'n roll. On "Lady," Kravitz celebrates the
consuming fire of love and passion. He wails to the stripped
down grit of an old-school rhythm sound, lifting its bluesy
southern rock into the stratosphere with his charismatic cat
calls and passionate pleading.
"California"
feels like driving up Highway 1, top down and 30 miles too
fast. "It definitely has this west coast feel, definitely,"
Kravitz says. "It's a very fun song about LA and all the
experiences I had as a kid." "California" echoes Kravitz's
journey from New York to Los Angeles at the age of 11,
facilitated by his late mother's (actress Roxie Roker) move from
Broadway to her acceptance of the role of Helen on television's
hit sitcom, The Jeffersons. "It was a culture shock. Growing up
in New York, you're very independent. Suddenly, I was in this
place in LA and no one's on the street. You can't go anywhere
unless your mom drives you," Kravitz laughs. But Los Angeles is
where Kravitz would find rock 'n roll at John Adams Junior High
School in Santa Monica during the mid-'70s. "Growing up in New
York, I knew about RnB and funk and jazz and gospel and blues
from my parents. Now I'm in LA and I'm hanging out,
skateboarding and listening to Zeppelin, Kiss, Aerosmith and
Hendrix."
 While some songs swirl with the ingredients of influence
into its own dish, others find Kravitz going in diversely rich
directions heretofore never explored. "Storm" features a guest
appearance by Jay-Z, whom Kravitz met when playing on the
hip-hop superstar's album, BLUEPRINT 2.0 (on the song "Guns And
Roses"). Offers Kravitz, "I've never had a rapper on any of my
music before. But I felt the song needed that flavor." Kravitz
reached out to Jay-Z via telephone and the artist offered to do
the song right then and there. "Musically, he's really gifted,"
says Kravitz. "He sat, played the song a few times and just
walked in the room and nailed it on one take." Kravitz's musical
success has afforded him many opportunities in which to fulfill
his creative vision. He has established his own record label,
Roxie Records, named after his late mother, whose memory he
draws eternal inspiration from. Through the label, distributed
by Warner Brothers, he can scout and enable other creative
talents. But Kravitz's opportunities also extend beyond the
recording industry. He has created a design company, Kravitz
Designs, that undertakes various high-concept projects.
Currently, through his company, Kravitz is designing a recording
studio in the penthouse of the Setai Group's hotel in Miami.
Kravitz is also making strides in the film world. He is writing,
producing and plans to direct a movie based loosely upon the
story of his own interesting life.
 However,
as BAPTISM consistently reinforces, the music is Kravitz's
center. Finding himself back at his starting point on BAPTISM,
Kravitz gives a nod to the struggle that birthed his early
records. "I think I spent a lot of time before LET LOVE RULE
trying to be what I thought I should be. I was using this stage
name, Romeo Blue, and I had this image of what I thought was
right. But that's part of the road to finding yourself. You put
on these images and you try to be something you're not. It
showed me what I wasn't, which was a good exercise. LET LOVE
RULE was the time everything had changed for me. All of the
sudden, I had a purpose, a sound, a vibe... and it came
naturally through me. It was electrifying. So to come back to
that point, to that purity, is a really profound moment for me
and I think it shows up in this music." After starting a
residential, commercial, and product design company called
Kravitz Design, he recorded a more funky version of John
Lennon's "Cold Turkey" for Amnesty International's 2007 benefit
compilation CD "Instant Karma". Before the end of the year it
was announced that Kravitz would return in 2008 with a new
album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The album arrived in
February, accompanied by a brief but memorable tour. "I'm a
person who is always trying to experience new things and
constantly change my perspective," says Lenny Kravitz. "I really
try to keep things alive, to be around different people and
different influences. I'll go live someplace I've never been,
where I don't know anybody, and I'll gain the experience of it.
I guess that reflects on the music I make." UB
Biographical material courtesy of
Virgin Records
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