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.