Karl Denson's AfroSonic New Year's Eve

For almost four decades, Karl Denson has been one of American music's most in-demand horn players and bandleaders — co-founder of the acid-jazz institution The Greyboy Allstars, longtime frontman of the genre-blurring Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and, since 2014, the man holding down the saxophone chair for The Rolling Stones.

As he turns 70, Denson is pouring a lifetime of groove into his most personal project yet: Karl Denson's Afro Sonic. Built around his half-century-long love of Fela Kuti and West African rhythm, the band's self-titled debut album arrives early next year — a horn-driven, deep-pocket outing that plays like a career's worth of funk, jazz, and soul finally speaking its first language. It isn't a victory lap; it's Denson going back to the source.