Photo by Dino Perrucci
Karl Denson has found success in his long career as both a celebrated side man and an accomplished band leader, from his days with Lenny Kravitz, to his solo efforts and ongoing work in Greyboy Allstars and Tiny Universe, to his more recent stints with The Rolling Stones. The multi-instrumentalist and singer has adapted to several different genres and surrounding musicians, a skill that was highlighted during last month’s Jam Cruise, the festival-at-sea which has hosted Denson for every single one of its 15 years, where Denson notched two KDTU sets and multiple sit-ins, including an impromptu tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead.
Onboard the Norwegian Pearl somewhere in the Caribbean, Denson talks about the evolution of the cruise, his recent forays into the world of the Dead, his close relationship with the members of Slightly Stoopid and what it’s like to sit down fo =r dinner with Keith Richards.
Can you talk about how Jam Cruise has evolved, how it’s changed, in its 15 years?
Well I think that the coolest thing about this—it was probably around year 10 where I had kind of lowered my expectations based on the same lineup every year, pretty much, with a few variations. But there was a distinct change in musicianship at about year 10, and I just heard everybody blossom. It was really crazy. All of a sudden, Stanton [Moore] was playing really good jazz brushes, and Robert Walter’s always killing, and Skerik…It was just like the musicianship got that much better, so it made it that much more fun to play with everybody. So I think that’s been the coolest thing about this boat is just there’s some really high musicianship on the boat.
Speaking of which, one of the best acts I’ve seen here were the Benevento/Russo Duo. Have you played with them?
Yeah! It’s like a bucking bronco—like riding the mechanical bull. They’re almost un-sit-in-able! You know what I mean? Because even when they give you something simple, it’s still fricking weird!
They’re impressive, and they’re obviously just having a blast up there. That’s the best.
Oh yeah, yeah. I’ve been having Marco play on some of my other projects, I helped the sax player for Slightly Stoopid write produce his record, and we sent a bunch of tracks to Marco to just put flavorings on them. They was these really big compositions, and I just said “You’re the connective tissue.” And man, when we finally started mixing it and started pulling all the parts out and figuring out what was there, it was some of the funniest shit you ever heard, man. I mean, literally him just going like “Ranghranghranghrangh!”
You were part of the Grateful Dead tribute set yesterday, and you’ve also played with Phil Lesh recently. Can you talk about your Dead connection and how you got into it, or if you were a big fan?
I am not a Deadhead, which is really interesting this many years out. I was just saying that to Robert Walter yesterday. It’s really cool that I’ve been playing with Phil. I did a summer with RatDog back in 2000, and just the fact that everybody loves the Dead in this whole jamband scene which I’m a part of has forced me to take a look at the Dead, and I started figuring out what was good about them. They write great songs, and they’re all kind of weird, a little skewy, you know? But I think the coolest thing is—it’s like the Duo, Marco and Joe, they’re not Deadheads, and now they’re doing the Almost Dead thing, because of Furthur. The Dead is the connective tissue to the whole thing, because even for us who didn’t grow up listening to the Dead, it still is the glue that holds the community together, and so every once in a while, we have to pay homage to it. We did it for my 60th birthday–we did “Here Comes Sunshine” and “Viola Lee Blues,” just because it makes sense just for the scene.
What was it like coming into that music not having listened to it much, especially playing with people who really know it, or even created it themselves?
For me, technically, it’s very simple—it’s like just playing the blues. But it reminds me of Brazilian music, of bossa nova, because it’s all similar changes, but if you don’t know the poem, you don’t know the song. So it’s really about learning the poems, which is the cool part of it. So in the process of traveling through this thing, I’ve learned 10 of the poems now, so it’s becoming more fun.
Can you talk a bit more about the 60th birthday celebration and some of the guests you brought up for it?
It was super fun, man. Mike D[illon] played percussion the whole night. The cool thing was, you got Luther [Dickinson], who’s from North Mississippi Allstars, Jackie Greene, Ivan [Neville], and Stoopid, and they’re all very different. The coolest part was that it managed to really sound congruous the whole way through. Luther came up, just dropped some blues and everybody got comfortable. Then I think we played “Viola Lee Blues” with Jackie, and that was just kind of the next step of that. We did “Here Comes Sunshine” and let it stretch out, and then we moved to Ivan and did some soul, and then went back to Stoopid and they did a nice little set in the middle, and then we went back to Luther and did some more blues. It was a perfect night; it really made sense, and it was just one of those things, playing with cats who had been playing long enough where they get it. They know what they do, and they know what they don’t do, and so they do what they do and they don’t get in the way of other people doing what they do.
Was there a lot of rehearsal for that?
Well, the band, we would get together at soundcheck for a couple of days while we were out on our tour a couple weeks before that, and started running things. And then, the day before, we came to San Francisco and ran everything by ourselves. Then, day of, the guys came in and we ran their tunes. So yeah, it was really smooth. Luther didn’t even know we were learning his tunes until he got there. We were like “Oh we’re gonna play ‘Drop Down Mama,’” and he’s like “Oh nice!”
Can you talk about your relationship with Slightly Stoopid and how you came to work with those guys?
We have management in common—their manager and our manager, are really good friends, Silverback and Newson Management. So back in the day, before Slightly Stoopid, Silverback was managing Sublime, and those guys were Greyboy Allstars fans. So we opened two nights at the House of Blues in L.A., like a week before Brad [Nowell] died, so we just barely met them, had no idea who they were. And then they became huge, and Brad had already died, so it was like a really weird thing. We kind of stayed in touch over the years, and eventually… Jon [Phillips] had been trying to get me to come sit in with Stoopid, and I had listened to them and was like, “I’m not feeling it.” And then a couple of years later, they were playing San Diego and he invited me down, and I went and it was good! They had switched out the original drummer, but they got Rymo [Ryan Moran] from B-Side Players, a San Diego band, and he was solid. So they had put some better parts in, and they got the horns from John Brown’s Body, and it started tightening up. And then they were from San Diego, so they were just fun to hang out with because they were like me. So now, they’re just really good friends of mine. I go out with them mostly to hang out more than for the music, just because they’re good friends.
Switching gears, let’s talk about Tiny Universe’s tribute to Prince. You guys started doing the Dirty Mind thing before he passed away, right?
Yeah, my keyboard player calls me the grim reaper, because we started doing the Beastie Boys tribute before MCA [Adam Yauch] died. And it was really weird; right when we started doing that—we had done like two shows—MCA passed away. And then we started doing the Prince thing and that was such a—he wasn’t even sick! That was huge. So David thinks we should get the government to pay us to do an ISIS tribute. Yeah, it was really like the biggest shock, Prince dying; that was really, really weird.
You know, I wasn’t like a Prince devotee like a lot of people, but I definitely experienced him in the beginning—those first three or four records, [his self-titled], Dirty Mind, Controversy, those three records. By Purple Rain, I was kind of moved on. Still one of the greatest songwriters of our age, for sure, and—we were talking about it the other day—such an underrated guitar player. That guy was a fricking shredder. Because he was such a showman, you don’t even think of the fact that he’s playing guitar like a virtuoso, because he’s dancing around the whole time.
Some of the great guitar players, though, really respected him and knew how great he was.
And then that whole Minneapolis sound—for me, growing up through the ‘80s, it’s like second nature, because as far as funk goes, there was James Brown, and then there was Minneapolis, and that was what we went out to clubs and danced to. When I was in my 20s, that’s what I was getting down to; there’s Prince and Time. I just saw Morris Day and the Time probably a year ago in San Diego, and they crushed. It was so good.
I’m very curious what it’s like playing with The Rolling Stones.
You know what, man? It’s just the most surreal thing. It’s insane, and it’s just fun to go there with them, and it’s not my gig, so I’m just riding along, and it’s just so fucking plush—the private jets, the five-star hotels…And then, getting to hang out with those guys…Getting to have dinner with Keith Richards, that’s crazy.
What’s a Keith Richards dinner conversation like?
It was really fun, man. Keith’s one of those guys that’s got a very distinctive syntax; sometimes you start talking to him, and you’re not getting it, you’re not getting quite what he’s talking about. When we were in Chile, we were looking for a steakhouse—Chile’s supposed to have great steakhouses—so we went and I found this place that was supposed to be the best place, and I was just telling the guys after rehearsal, like, “Hey I’m gonna go over to the steakhouse tonight. It’s supposed to be really good.” And I went over and told Keith and he was like, “Oh, okay.” Then, a couple hours later, his bodyguard calls and goes, “What’s the name of the steakhouse?” And they did the whole reconnaissance, you know, and he fricking shows up man! And I’m sitting with Keith Richards and I was, like, getting used to his growls and that kind of stuff—because sometimes you got to let him sit there like “ruahruhhhruhh,” and if you don’t know him, you think he’s maybe saying something that you missed.
So it was awesome, man. He’s literally a pirate—he reads captains’ logs, like old 1800s, 1700s captains’ logs from ships’ logs. If he can find something good, he reads a lot. He’s just super funny, man. I go “Keith, you like movies?” “Good ones. Ones with a story, not all this CGI bullshit.” [Laughs] Just totally makes sense and I’m like yeah, that’s great. Which I happen to love, all the CGI bullshit, because I’m a Marvel kid. I waited my whole life for Thor to be able to go [makes hammer motion].
I’m actually working on a story of my own—sci-fi. It was originally kind of a Marvel-ish, superheroes thing. But ten years ago, when they just started making all the movies, I realized there was no room for my story, so I sat on it for a while. I’ve redone it now so that it’s a little more original.
Like a movie, or a comic book?
Yeah movie-slash-book. We just got through the second draft of it, so it should be done in another couple months.
What’s it called?
It’s called “Entanglement,” and it’s a story about dimensional space. It’s cool.
So what plans do you have for 2017, with Tiny Universe and other projects?
Well, Tiny Universe, our record is done, so we are going to drop that at some point here in the next four to five months. And the band’s hitting on all cylinders. I’m looking forward to writing more music with the band and just kind of evolving now. We’ve been shuffling the second guitar for the last few years, and then a year ago, we found Seth [Freeman]. So now we’re feeling like it’s really what we want it to be—it’s just a matter of writing and organizing our thoughts together better. We’re having fun.
