Live performance from American singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz, recorded in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.
There may have been other "retro" rock acts before him, but Lenny
Kravitz was one of the first to not be pigeonholed to a single style as
he touched upon such genres as soul, funk, reggae, hard rock,
psychedelic, folk, and ballads over the years. Born in New York on May
26, 1964 (his mother was actress Roxie Roker, best-known for her role as
Helen Willis on the popular TV series The Jeffersons, and his father
was a TV producer), Kravitz was raised in Los Angeles, where he found
himself around countless musical giants as a youngster due to his
parents friendships with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan,
Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, and Miles Davis. Kravitz was a
member of the California Boys Choir until his teenage years, when he
decided to pursue rock & roll while in high school and under the
heavily influence of funk rocker Prince. Kravitz's admiration of the
Purple One was so great that he at first patterned his style and
approach directly after Prince and became known as "Romeo Blue"
(complete with blue contact lenses), but failed to land a recording
contract.
In the late '80s, Kravitz relocated back to New York City, where one of
his roommates turned out to be actress Lisa Bonet (who played the part
of Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show); they eventually got married.
During this time, Kravitz wisely discarded his Prince-like approach and
looked back to such '60s/'70s classic rockers as Led Zeppelin, Jimi
Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, and the Beatles for
inspiration. Kravitz found a kindred spirit in engineer Henry Hirsch
(who would stick by Kravitz throughout his career). With a
back-to-basics approach, his style was quite refreshing in the
humorously gaudy late '80s. He inked a recording contract with Virgin
Records and issued his debut release, Let Love Rule, in 1989. Kravitz's
debut proved to be a surprise hit due to the success of the title track,
which became a hit single and oft-aired video. A few critics were quick
to assume that Kravitz's retro look and sound were simply a shtick to
get the public's attention, but come the '90s, it had become integrated
into the mainstream (both musically and fashion-wise), proving that
Kravitz was a bit of a trendsetter. It was around this time that Kravitz
penned a major hit single, not for himself but for Madonna, who went to
number one with the sultry track "Justify My Love."
What should have been a time of happiness for Kravitz quickly turned
sour as he and Bonet divorced by the early '90s. Kravitz's heartbreak
was very evident in his sophomore effort, Mama Said, which was even
stronger than its predecessor, highlighted by the Led Zep-like funk
rocker "Always on the Run" (a collaboration with Guns N' Roses guitarist
Slash), as well as the mega hit with the Curtis Mayfield-esque soul
ballad "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over," which confirmed that Kravitz's
success was no fluke. But the best was yet to come for Kravitz. His
third release overall, 1993's Are You Gonna Go My Way, is often
considered to be the finest album front to back of his entire career,
and with good reason: Every single song was a winner, including the
up-tempo anthemic title track, which turned out to be one of MTV's most
played videos for that year. The album was a massive hit and Kravitz
became an arena headliner stateside, as well as being featured on
countless magazine covers.
Despite an almost two-year gap between albums, Kravitz's fourth release,
Circus, came off sounding unfocused and was a major letdown compared to
his stellar previous few releases. Perhaps sensing that he needed to
stir things up musically, Kravitz dabbled with electronics and trip-hop
loops for his next album, 1998's 5. Although not a huge hit right off
the bat, the album proved to have an incredibly long chart life,
spawning the biggest hit of Kravitz's career, "Fly Away," almost a year
after its original release. With the single's success, Virgin decided to
cash in on the album's sudden rebirth by reissuing it around the same
time with a pair of extra added bonus tracks, one of which became
another sizeable hit single, a remake of the Guess Who's "American
Woman" (which was used in the hit 1999 comedy movie Austin Powers: The
Spy Who Shagged Me). Kravitz's first best-of set, the 15-track Greatest
Hits, was issued as a stopgap release in 2000, while his sixh studio
release overall, Lenny, was issued a year later. Baptism followed in
2004. After starting a residential, commercial, and product design
company called Kravitz Design, he recorded a funky version of John
Lennon's "Cold Turkey" for Amnesty International's 2007 benefit
compilation 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
tour.
Kravitz made his acting debut in the Academy Award-nominated 2009 film
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire. As he was filming his
next role a spot in the eagerly awaited adaptation of Suzanne Collins'
The Hunger Games he released his ninth album Black And White America in
the summer of 2011.
In addition to his own albums, Kravitz continues to pen songs for other
artists and his compositions have appeared on albums by such rock
heavyweights as Aerosmith and Mick Jagger, while he produced and wrote
the majority of Vanessa Paradis' obscure self-titled 1992 release.