Lee Ritenour - ...and on guitar (1976)

Lee Mack Ritenour was born on 11 January 1952, in Los Angeles, and being musically precocious, he began playing the guitar when he was five years old. At eight his interest in the instrument went beyond the ordinary, and with support from his parents, they found him new and better instructors, so that by the age of 12 he was under the tutelage of Duke Miller, future head of the guitar department at the University of Southern California, and purported at the time to be the finest guitar teacher in Los Angeles. As an adolescent he played in his first group the Esquires, which was the beginning of his time in a number of teenage bands, and when he was just 15 years old John Phillips, leader of The Mamas and the Papas, heard one of his bands and then hired him to play in a studio session. Although he was talented enough at the age of 18 to become a session guitarist, he made the choice to continue his education, and enrolled into the University of Southern California, where he studied classical guitar with another musician first in his field, Christopher Parkening. He remained at the university for two and a half years, until he got the opportunity to play with Brazilian pop-jazz musician Sergio Mendes, and touring with Mendes was Ritenour’s introduction to Latin music, also developing a love of jazz from listening to guitarist Wes Montgomery. By the age of 17 he'd worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, and had been noticed by jazz pianist and producer Dave Grusin. Highly recommended on the studio circuit by Grusin and others, Ritenour was working 15 to 20 sessions a week in a lucrative business during the early seventies. When he started working the studio dates, he was often asked to sound like all the other guitar players, but he wanted to go beyond that, and established an identity which was instantly recognisable. Because of the speed of his playing he was nick-named Captain Fingers, later the title of one of his albums, and so was the first choice for any jazz-fusion musician who needed some intricate guitar-work on their tracks, resulting in him featuring on a wide variety of jazz-fusion recording in the early 70's. At the same time he was also playing on records by pop and rock artists, showing his versatility in a wide variety of genres, including soul with Aretha Franklin, The Impressions, and The Four Tops, and straight-forward pop/rock with Cyndi Greco, Carly Simon and Anne Murray. For this collection I've just picked tracks from the couple of years before the release of his debut solo album 'First Course' in 1976, and I've split them between his jazz-fusion recordings and his pop/rock sessions, with the jazz-fusion part running to two volumes because of the length of some of the tracks.  

Track listing

Disc One: Some Jazz
01 Soulution (from 'Black Miracle' by Joe Henderson 1975) 
02 Haply-Happy (from 'Saudade' by Moacir Santos 1974)
03 Back At The Chicken Shack (from 'Brass Fever' by Brass Fever 1975) 
04 Razzia (from 'Before The Dawn' by Patrice Rushen 1975)
05 Chariot (from 'I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry' by George Duke 1975)
06 Wild Rice (from 'Marching In The Streets' by Harvey Mason 1975) 
07 Happiness Is Loving You (from 'Mind Transplant' by Alphonse Mouzon 1975)
08 Fight For Freedom (from 'Skull Session' by Oliver Nelson 1975)

Disc Two: Some More Jazz
01 Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow (from 'Discovered Again!' by Dave Grusin 1976)
02 Sugar Loaf Sunrise (from 'Metamorphosis' by Wade Marcus 1976)
03 On The Case (from 'Moonshadows' by Alphonso Johnson 1976) 
04 Kickin' Back (from 'People Moving' by Azar Lawrence 1976) 
05 Sweet Summer Breeze (from 'Warm And Sonny' by Sonny Criss 1976)
06 Simbora (from 'Agora' by Paulinho Da Costa 1976)
07 Island Lady (from 'The Way I Feel' by Sonny Rollins 1976)
    
Disc Three: Some Songs
01 You (from 'Farewell Fairbanks' by Randy Edelman 1975)
02 Steamboat (from 'Smilin' Memories' by Eric Tagg 1975) 
03 Waterfall (from 'Playing Possum' by Carly Simon 1975)
04 Wish That Love Was Magic (from 'Harmony Grits' by Street Corner Symphony 1975)
05 Player In The Band (from 'Together' by Anne Murray 1975)
06 Baby Blue (from 'Get Closer' by Seals & Crofts 1976)
07 100 Different Ways (b-side of 'Nobody Likes Lovin' More Than I Do' by Lisa Hartman 1976)
08 Fantasy Woman (from 'Lovelock' by Gene Page 1976)
09 Imaginary Girl (from 'Diggin' It' by Dunn And Rubini 1976)
10 Hurly-Burly (from 'Angelo' by Angelo 1976)
11 Raining In The City (from 'I'm Easy' by Keith Carradine 1976)
12 The Dancer (from 'Nadia's Theme' by Barry De Vorzon 1976)
13 Where The Hot Wind Blows (from 'Pictures & Rhymes' by Jim Weatherly 1976)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.

Tommy Bolin - ...and on guitar (1975)

Thomas Richard Bolin was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1951, and began playing with The Miserlous as a teenager, before he was asked to join Denny and The Triumphs in 1964, at the young age of thirteen. They played a blend of rock and roll, R&B and the pop hits of the moment, and after leaving them they were followed by American Standard when he moved to Boulder, Colorado in his late teens, and then by Ethereal Zephyr. This last group was named after a train that ran between Denver and Chicago, and when record companies became interested the name was shortened to Zephyr. This band included Bolin on lead guitar, David Givens on bass, and Givens' wife Candy Givens on vocals, attempting to emulate Janis Joplin, and not always successfully. Their second album 'Going Back to Colorado' featured a new drummer, Bobby Berge, who would pop up from time to time in musician credits in Bolin's later projects. In 1972, now aged 20, Bolin formed the fusion jazz-rock-blues band Energy, but they were unable to secure a record contract, and so never released an album during Bolin's lifetime, although recordings have been released posthumously. Stuck between the musical direction he wanted to pursue and a nearly-empty bank account, 1973 found Bolin replacing Domenic Troiano, who had in turn replaced Joe Walsh, in the James Gang. He recorded two albums with them, 'Bang' in 1973 and 'Miami' in 1974, and had a hand in writing nearly all the songs on both records.
 In between the two James Gang albums, Bolin played on Billy Cobham's 1973 solo album 'Spectrum', which included Bolin on guitar, Cobham on drums, Leland Sklar on bass and Jan Hammer on keyboards and synthesizers. After the 'Miami' tour, Bolin left the James Gang and filled his time doing session work for various rock and jazz bands, and he also toured with Carmine Appice and The Good Rats. Later in 1975, he signed with Nemperor Records for a solo album, and it was during the recording of 'Teaser' that he was contacted by Deep Purple. After Ritchie Blackmore left the band, the other members had a meeting and discussed whether to disband or try to find a replacement. They chose the latter option, and Bolin was suggested by David Coverdale, who had been listening to his work on Billy Cobham's 'Spectrum' album. He was invited over for a jam session, and four hours later the job was his. 'Come Taste the Band' was released in October 1975, and contained a number of Bolin co-writes, but the band broke up a year later, leaving him free to put together the Tommy Bolin Band. After releasing just one album, 'Private Eyes' in 1976, Bolin died on 3rd December 1976 from an overdose of heroin, cocaine and alcohol. As you will hear from this album, he was a talented guitarist in a number of styles, from hard rock with Moxy and Deep Purple, to the most intricate jazz-rock fusion with Billy Cobham and Alphonse Mouzon, and he is a great loss to the world of music.   

Track listing

01 Sun's A-Risin' (from 'Zephyr' by Zephyr 1969)
02 Destiny (demo recording with Jeremy Steig 1971)
03 Naked Edge (from unreleased album by Energy 1972)
04 From Another Time (from 'Bang' by The James Gang 1973)
05 Quadrant 4 (from 'Spectrum' by Billy Cobham 1973)
06 Carbon Dioxide (from 'Mind Transplant' by Alphonse Mouzon 1975)
07 Fantasy (from 'Moxy' by Moxy' 1975)
08 Bolin/Paice Jam (from 'Come Taste The Band' sessions by Deep Purple 1975)