Arts fest closer Karl Denson juggles Tiny Universe and Rolling Stones
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe was booked to play a midweek show at the Three Rivers Arts Festival when it had what they call in the trade a little “scheduling conflict.”
Turns out, the frontman was needed for rehearsal time with his little side project: the Rolling Stones.
Denson, who will now be bringing Tiny Universe to the festival on Sunday, became the touring saxophonist for the Stones in 2014 after the death of the legendary band’s longtime sideman Bobby Keys.
Along with Tiny Universe and The Greyboy All-Stars, Denson, who grew up in San Diego, came with an extensive resume that included work with heavy jazz hitters like Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland as well as gospel band Blind Boys of Alabama and rockers Lenny Kravitz and Slightly Stoopid.
Growing up, the 62-year-old Denson was obviously aware of the Rolling Stones but, he noted in an email interview from England, “only in a listening-to-the-radio-andseeing-them-on-TV-kind of way. My older siblings weren’t listening to rock and roll. We’re black! ;-)”
Nonetheless, he was more than happy to take the gig when offered.
“It’s the #@&^**$ Rolling Stones!!!” he noted.
Denson, the fifth of six kids, was raised with the jazz and soul that his brothers were playing, gravitating to the work of John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter as he was developing his sax chops.
They were first put to use in Just Funk, a Sly Stone-style group with his middle school friends in the ’70s and then in the ’80s with O’Bryan, an R&B artist produced and managed by Don Cornelius from “Soul Train,” which, of course, got him on TV.
“I never got stuck on a certain style,” Denson said. “Jazz is definitely my first love, but as a writer, I always wanted to be as complete as possible. Like Duke Ellington said, ‘There are two kinds of music: good and bad.’ “
Through a trumpeter friend, he found something good in Kravitz’s band in time to play on the 1989 breakout debut “Let Love Rule” and the follow-up “Mama Said.” He was doing a cover band gig with his old Just Funk friends when he met DJ Greyboy in 1992, during the dawn of the acid jazz era, and they formed the Greyboy All-Stars, where he first took a stab at being a lead singer.
When that was winding down, in 2006, he debuted Tiny Universe. “It’s supposed to be like a dance DJ who’s a musical historian,” he said. The approach is more songoriented with, naturally, more vocals, but still plenty of room to jam out and flash those mean sax skills.
“It depends on the song,” he said. “Some of the shorter ones kind of stay the same, since they’re written in a concise form. The longer ones will change a lot, since there’s more room to stray.”
In the category of full-on jams is an instrumental banger on the new album called “Millvale, PA,” which was born right here.
“We finished learning it at Mr. Smalls and planned on playing it that night,” he said. “We chickened out, and as a consolation I told the audience that we would name it after them.”
The name of the album, “Gnomes and Badgers,” makes a fanciful political statement.
“They live in the forest together,” he said of those creatures, “they’re very different, but they get along well because they listen to each other and apply critical thinking to every discussion.”
One of the standouts on the album is a soul-rocking second single “Change My Way,” reminiscent of a Kravitz rocker, on which he addresses the treatment of immigrants and wonders what happened to The Golden Rule.
He was prompted, he said, by “the current toxic political climate. I don’t think the people wrapping themselves in Christianity and the Constitution are being very Christlike or constitutional.”
Most of the record covers the typical R&B/soul topics of love trouble. Along for the ride is an interesting collection of guests.
“I brought in some ringers to help clarify the ideas behind a few of the compositions,” he said. “Anders [Osborne] has been a great writing partner and mentor. Ivan Neville always adds the right character to anything. Chuck Leavell’s piano on ‘Smart Boy’ totally transformed the tune. Lukas Nelson’s guitar solo on ‘Something Sweet’ was a welcomed surprise, not what I expected at all. Greg Izzor’s harmonica on ‘Millvale’ might be my favorite moment on the whole record.”
Denson plays the arts festival on Sunday and then five days later opens the Stones tour at Soldier Field in Chicago.
“It’s going great!” he said of the rehearsals. “The band is in great spirits, and everyone is healthy including Mick, who is back to 100%.”
The free show is at 7:30 p.m. at Point State Park, Downtown.