LENNY KRAVITZ
„Black and White America“
22. Juli 2012 Lörrach, Marktplatz, 20 Uhr

„Fly away”, „It Is Time For A Love Revolution” und „Let Love Rule" sind nur einige der Hits, mit denen Lenny Kravitz in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten Rockgeschichte schrieb. Erst kürzlich wurde der wandlungsfähige Rock- und Soul-Künstler vom französischen Kultusminister Frédéric Mitterand mit dem „Orden der Künste und der Literatur“ ausgezeichnet. Nach seiner erfolgreichen Deutschland-Tournee im Herbst 2011 kommt der vierfache Grammy-Gewinner am Sonntag, 22. Juli 2012 erstmals mit seinem aktuellen Album „Black and White America“ zu STIMMEN. Der Vorverkauf startet am Donnerstag, 26. Januar 2012!
Tickets für das Konzert in Lörrach gibt es an allen ReserviX-Vorverkaufsstellen, telefonisch unter der Nummer +49 7621 94 0 89 -12 oder -11 und im Internet unter www.stimmen.com.

For his ninth album, Lenny Kravitz found much of his inspiration close to home. In fact, the very spirit of BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA came from the locations in which the music was made—from a tiny, 400-person community in the Bahamas to the streets of Paris. And out of his experiences as a true citizen of the planet, his first new songs in three years became the most personal and diverse collection of his career. "No doubt, my environment definitely lends a lot to the creative process," he says.

Kravitz has repeatedly shown what that process can accomplish. He’s been making records for over twenty years, since his landmark 1989 debut LET LOVE RULE. In that time, he has sold over 35 million albums and won four Grammy awards. But despite these dazzling achievements—or maybe because of them—the singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist's home in the islands has remained a crucial part of his life. "It's such a beautiful, isolated place," says Kravitz, "and it's a really great, basic existence. You eat out of the garden and the sea, you don’t have shoes or keys, and you know everybody and don’t pass by anyone without acknowledging them."

While the island, the homeland of his mother's family, has long been a familiar sanctuary for Kravitz, in the last year he committed to the place in a new way. "I was spending a lot of time alone, and accepting parts of myself that I’ve had some trouble with previously," he says. "This was the most time I’ve spent down there, and whatever is inside yourself is projected all over—and if there’s things you need to deal with, they come out."

Fortunately, what emerged was a new level of comfort and clarity with his music. "I dreamt a lot of this music, sleeping in my trailer on the beach," he says. One morning, he recalls, he "just woke up and ran to the studio and this thing came out"—which turned out to be the ferocious, funk-style groove of "Life Ain’t Ever Been Better Than It Is Now." On the soaring, prayer-like piano ballad "Dream," he sings, "no one can take the dream from your heart."

Not that all of BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA—his first release on Atlantic Records/Roadrunner Records, and the follow-up to 2008's IT IS TIME FOR A LOVE REVOLUTION, which marked Kravitz's highest-ever debut on the album charts—was as mystical as those experiences. On other songs, he drew from his year in the secluded town in earthier ways.

"Down the road from where I live, there's a little place to get food, and at night, there’s a DJ," he says. "I was there watching these Bahamian women dance. Most of them happen to be very full figured ladies, and they're super-proud of their bodies. They wear shorter shorts, in loud colors and it's really encouraging to see that they are not buying the stereotypes of what the media says is beautiful."

Inspired by these women, Kravitz came up with "Boongie Drop," a simmering space-shuffle with a grinding, late-night groove ("in the Bahamas, 'boongie' is the word for 'ass,' so I just kept it cultural," he explains). Jay-Z, who has collaborated with Kravitz on several songs over the years, jumps on the track with some high-speed, island-inflected rhymes, while DJ Military, the actual DJ at the club and an old friend of Kravitz's, got his own chance to kick off the song.

BLACK AND WHITE AMERICA took on another layer when Kravitz shifted his base of operations to Paris. "After I'd been in the bush so long, it was really interesting to hear this music in the city, while I was driving around," he says. "The attitude changed from hearing it in an urban environment." In Paris, he began the mixing and much of the synthesizer overdubs. It is there he also wrote a "really sensual, very minimal" song called "Liquid Jesus," bringing a sleeker and more sophisticated feel to the sound.