Leonard Albert Kravitz is a native New Yorker. It was in this incredible city that Lenny Kravitz was born in 1955. In the family of an actress and TV producer. Leonard's mom, Roxy Roker, devoted her whole life to acting in films. The highest point of her career, perhaps, can be called the performance of one of the main roles in the popular comedy film series The Jeffersons.
The father of the future musician, Simur Kravitz, a Jew with Ukrainian roots, worked on the NBC news channel. The boy received his name in honor of his father's brother. A military pilot who died shortly before Lenny was born during the Korean War. Lenny's daughter with actress Lisa Bonet, Zoe Kravitz is a popular film actress. She is also known for her modeling and musical activities.
The Early Years of Lenny Kravitz
Born into an above-average family, Lenny spent his childhood and youth in Manhattan, New York City's cultural heartland. When Lenny was very young, he spent a lot of time around musicians playing in the street. His parents knew many famous musicians of the 50s and 60s. They played the piano more than once in their house, for example, Duke Ellington. Little Lenny sat on his lap.
When the future famous musician turned 19, the family moved to Los Angeles. The future artist had a great interest in music since childhood. Lenny did not consider other options for his education. Upon arrival in California, he begins to sing and receive a musical education in the California Boys Choir.
He participates in many recordings of the choir of that time. But singing alone was never enough for Lenny. In his free time from the choir, he devotes himself to a variety of musical instruments at once. He is learning to play drums, keyboards and guitar.
The Rise of the Musical Career of Lenny Kravitz
By this point, Lenny already lives separately from his parents. He spends all his time honing his skills in playing musical instruments and writing songs. The musician takes the pseudonym Romeo Blue.
The young talent was quickly noticed on the IRS Records label, with which he signs a contract. Soon, Lenny receives a better offer from the world-famous Virgin and terminates his previous contract. He has been loyal to this label for over 30 years, since 1989.
Alias Rejection
The first decision made in the new place was to drop the pseudonym in favor of his real name. In the same year, Lenny Kravitz released his first album, Let Love Rule. Undeniable talent and a bright image made the success of the album inevitable. In each song, he sang on his own and wrote parts for several musical instruments at once.
The success was immediately followed by tours throughout the United States and Europe. There were also multiple appearances on TV channels. The career of the musician went up sharply after collaborating with the incredibly popular at that time Madonna. He wrote the music for the song "Justify My Love". The work for a long time occupied the first places in the charts around the world.
During the military clashes between America and Iraq, Kravitz recorded a cover version of John Lennon's famous "Give Peace a Chance", for this event he was joined by Lennon's son Sean, Yoko Ono and a large number of other famous musicians.
Second Lenny Kravitz album
The second album of the musician did not have to wait long. The first single from Mama Said was "It Is Not Over Til It's Over". The album went platinum. On the wave of Lenny's success, using his considerable experience in writing songs and music. He decides to start producing other artists.
He wrote the music for the debut album of the singer Vanessa Paradis, who was beginning at that time. During the same period, he co-wrote two songs with Mick Jagger: "Use Me" and "Line Up". In the process, Lenny Kravitz and Mick Jagger become close friends and will work on music more than once and release more than one famous song.
The artist does not forget about solo work either, in the 90s he released several albums, each of which went platinum: "Are You Gonna Go My Way" (1993), "Circus" (1995), "5" (1998). This winning streak was overshadowed by only one event - in 1995, Lenny's mother died.
Having survived the loss, Lenny returns to work and goes on a 40-show tour of the United States of America. 1998 - the song "Fly Away" is fixed in the charts of America for a long time, and the artist himself receives a Grammy statuette in the nomination "Best Male Rock Performance".
The sixth album under the laconic name "Lenny" brings the musician another Grammy statuette, and the song "Dig In" from it gets into the hit parade "40 best rock songs of all time", compiled by the authoritative publication "Rolling Stone". The special terms of Lenny's contract with his release company allowed him to open his own label, Roxie Roker.
Lenny Kravitz and Virgin Records
Releasing his solo projects on Virgin Records, Lenny publishes his production projects on his small label. The only project of the musician himself, published not on Virgin, is the album Baptism, a collaboration with New York hip-hop artist Jay-Z.
Lenny's eighth album, It Is Time For Love Revolution, is considered by many critics to be the artist's best work of his entire career. The release of the album was followed by a world tour, and Lenny himself was finally able to fulfill his old dream - to visit the homeland of his paternal ancestors, in Kyiv. For the Kyiv concert, Lenny came up with a special program that lasted more than two hours.
Lenny Kravitz's latest album, Black and White America, was released in 2011 and received traditionally high marks from critics and listeners. In the same period, the artist tries himself in a new field: he played a supporting role in the film "Treasure" by Lee Daniels. Lenny's most famous film work is the role of the stylist of the main character of the most popular film franchise The Hunger Games.
