10A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 13, 1999 Kravitz thinks records reflect time The Hartford Courant When Lenny Kravitz got the first Grammy of his career this year for best rock performance, it was also the first Grammy any black has won in the rock category. "I feel great about that," Kravitz, 35, says, in a phone interview from Toronto. "But it doesn't make sense to me that I would be the first one to do that. But I'm thankful and accept it on behalf of all those who invented the art form." The black rock 'n' roll pioneers include such pivotal names as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix. But Kravitz is one of a few black rock performers, and his audiences tend to be overwhelmingly white. "I don't understand it," Kravitz says. "How can black people invent some- thing and then throw it out? I don't understand that concept at all." It's happened before in the culture, he notes. "Jazz, blues - it's sad," he says. "I guess we just keep inventing stuff and moving on. I guess at some point black people won't be listening to rap any- more either. It will be a totally white art form. We'll throw that away and go on to the next thing to invent." Kravitz grew up "listening to everything - opera, you know, jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, classical, you know, gospel. Everything - rock, funk, pop, calypso." Modeling himself after Prince in high school, it took 10 years for Kravitz to finally get a recording contract, coming at a time when he was better known as the boyfriend, then husband, of TV actress Lisa Bonet. Kravitz made his mark with music that echoed the past even as it stormed modern- rock charts. His most recent single this summer was his most directly retro: a straight cover of a '60s hit for the movie "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." He was asked to record Guess Who's "American Woman," although the song may have made more sense in the original version, coming from Canadians. "I didn't look at it that way," Kravitz says. "I looked at the lyric as what it was. I understand why it would make more sense for a Canadian. But I still could relate to the song." Still, he adds, "a lot of kids don't even know it's not my song. You know, they ask me why did I write that? What am I talking about? Well, I didn't write it." "American Woman" did well enough as a single and video - the first to show Kravitz in his new post-dreadlocks hairdo -- that it was included in updated versions of his 1998 album "5," along with another song that didn't make it on the album the first time, "Without You." The song that became the biggest hit from "5" - and the Grammy-win- ner - was "Fly Away." Kravitz was a little surprised at its success. "That song almost didn't make it on the album," he says. It's hard to predict, at the time of recording, what will resonate with fans and what won't. "I know what I feel is strong," he says. "But I don't know the public's perception or radio's perception." "Fly Away" slowly began getting play on a number of formats and even- tually boosted sales of his album to 2 million; "5" became the first album to simultaneously top three rock formats: modern rock, active and main- stream. Leave it to Kravitz, who has been criticized for having a retro sound, for being a throwback to the days when a song had enough universal appeal to be embraced by different kinds of fans. It also explains why his 10-year, five-album reign in a fickle modern-rock world is about nine years and four albums longer than most acts. The recording of "5" followed a long period of struggle for Kravitz. "It's kind of like a new beginning, in certain ways," he says. "It's not at all yet where I'm going, but it's a start." It follows what was his darkest record, "Circus," recorded about the time his mother, Roxie Roker, known to many for her role as Helen on TV's "The Jeffersons," was dying. Some have dismissed the 1995 "Circus" as an aberration between the commercial heights of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and "5." But, Kravitz says, "Each album is a collection of experiences. A lot of people really enjoy this album and say it's much more positive than the one before, and so much better. "But it's funny. I listened to 'Circus' last night, which I haven't listened to in years. And it's one of the best albums I ever made. It was heavy and maybe a hard record for some people to swallow. But each record is just what it is."' Each of his records tends to reflect time like a photograph album, he says. "Things do age. But I'm quite pleased at the way all of my albums have aged." Mablean Ephriam settles disputes in the new Fox television series. Assoc oted Pr LA attorney presides, over 'IXv'orce C; ourt'. ^.w Academically Priced Software for macromedia ;1 metaCreations" Autodesk BorlandAAN Academic Price $174.95 Students and Faculty Save up to 70% on software products from more than 60 publishers. Secure online ordering. Proof of academic status required. Call 1-800-843-5576 or check our website. wwwccvoftarecom MathSoft SYMANTEC' STRATA Write for Daily Arts! For more information, call 763-0379 and ask for Jessie or Chris. ,- Academic Price 592.95 '" S~t is S Academic Price $115.95 vm xihr4p Los Angeles Times Order in the court. Who will go home with a disputed mink coat - the soon-to-be-ex-wife or her cross-dressing husband? They both should try it on and see who looks better, ordered Mablean Ephriam, the veteran Los Angeles attorney who presides over a revival of "Divorce Court," on Fox. Guess who got the coat. "He was in a dress, and he had long, beautiful hair," Ephriam says over coffee near her Los Angeles home. "His nails were freshly manicured. They're better than mine. His makeup was nice. He has beautiful structure." What wasn't nice, she said, was the way the wife kept referring to her hus- band as "It." "I said, 'Who is 'It'? That's your hus- band. That's a human being. You will either refer to him by his name or you will refer to him as your husband, but you will not refer to him as 'It.'" Ephriam says such lack of civility is common when it comes to the down- and-dirty business of dividing the spoils of failed marriages. "Divorce court is where you see the average citizen at his worst, and criminal court is where you see the worst person at his best" she says. "Criminals put on a suit and tie so you won't think they're that creep who just used an ax to cut up 10 people. And divorce court brings out the worst in people." Ephriam, who is both tough and funny, came by her street smarts in the courtrooms of Los Angeles. "I don't think they could have picked a better person," says U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "Not only is she a very competent attorney. I know her to be warm, engaging and no-nonsense." Waters crossed paths with Ephriam in 1982 when Ephriam helped establish a legal resource center in South-Central Los Angeles for women coping with domestic violence. The clinic, set up to compensate for legal aid cutbacks, is now located in another part of Los Angeles and called the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law. Its 80 volunteer attorneys help about 1,000 women with their cases each year. The Buhai center's executive director, Betty Nordwind, credits Ephriam with getting things done by virtue of her "larger-than-life personality. ... She has a basic sense of justice and a way of see- ing the truth of the matter that many lawyers do not have." Ephriam, who has raised a family of four, graduated from Pitzer College in Claremont and got her law degree in 1978 after attending Whittier College of Law at night. In the early '80s, Ephriam was a deputy city attorney battling domestic violence on another front - she help, start the Domestic Violence Prosecutio , Unit of the Los Angeles city attorney's office. "At the time, society was turning its back on domestic violence and pretend;- ing it didn't exist," Ephriam says. "And when we filed a criminal case, the female victim would usually say, 'I don't want to testify.' "That's when the city attorney's office said, 'We are not dismissing the case because the victim says, "I don't want prosecute." More police were injured in response to domestic violence calls than anything else, and you put them in a pre- carious position when you do that. Also, when you don't follow through, it saysto the perpetrator, 'You can do this again.' In . 1982, Ephriam started her ow firm, which now deals with family law, personal injury and criminal law. During her career, she has served as the pregi- dent. of Los Angeles' Black Wom* Lawyers group and received the 1995 California Woman of the Year Award from the state Assembly's 48th District. When Ephriam heard through the lawyer's grapevine that Twentieth Television was looking for a judge for "Divorce Court," she saw it as a fresh challenge. "I'm 50. Why not change going into my second part of the century by doing something new and different?" "Divorce Court's" executive producer Jill Blackstone, says Ephriam was the only judge wannabe out of 100 to nail her audition on the first try. Unlike the classic TV drama, the new "Divorce Court" will feature real couples who agree to televised mediation of their property and custody disputes. But why would people discuss their personal grievances on the air? "I imagine the divorce court prode on television is cathartic," Ephriam says. "When you're in (regular) divorce court, rarely do the litigants speak. Most of the courts these days don't really care about the reasons why you're divorcing - the underlying infidelity, the financial prob- lems, the difficulty in raising children. So you really don't get an opportunity to get rid of the pent-up frustration and anger and pain. This is a form that allows them to do that." But for all her close encounters wiO divorce, Ephriam says she's still a strong believer in marriage. "I think it's wonderful. And I hope to do it again sometime soon. I'm not jaded. When you're married, you have a partner, a friend, someone to talk'to, to laugh with, to share your joys, your disappointments, your fears, your successes, all of that. It keeps you from running around in the streetc It's just good." 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