This past November, Lenny Kravitz was awarded one of France’s highest accolades when he was made an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, an honor he received because, according to French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand, he had freed himself “from the barriers between black and white sound.” Indeed, Kravitz has a long history with the French, who embraced the retro ’60s vibe of his 1989 debut album ,Let Love Rule, at a time when most of America didn’t know what to make of it. In fact, Kravitz even lives in Paris for several months a year.
Kravitz accepted this mark of distinction just a few months after releasing his ninth album, the expansive Black and White America (Atlantic/Roadrunner), which he recorded at his beach-front studio in the Bahamas (and which, tellingly, has risen higher on the charts in France than in the U.S.). With its angular guitar riffs and smooth vocals, Black and White America revisits the vintage rock-funk fusion of Kravitz’s early days. The album also draws heavily on other aspects of Kravitz’s past, including his upbringing as the child of actress Roxie Roker and TV producer Sy Kravitz, and growing up biracial as he traversed a variety of different (and disparate) spheres.
