The guitar has been part of Lee Ritenour’s life since the tender age of 8, when he took up the instrument.
Born in Los Angeles, Ritenour decided at the age of 12 he wanted to pursue a career in music. At 16, he played on his first recording sessions with the Mamas & the Papas. At 17, he worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett.
Ritenour developed a love for jazz and was influenced by the guitarist Wes Montgomery. Over his nearly six-decade career, he has taken his music to the outer limits, playing in every genre.
His solo career began with his album First Course in 1976, a good example of the jazz-funk sound of the 70s. That was followed by Captain Fingers, The Captain’s Journey and Feel the Night.
Listen to “Run Like Hell” on Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall and you’ll hear the distinctive guitar of Ritenour. He didn’t get credit but that’s his rhythm guitar on the same album’s “One of My Turns.”
During the 80s, Ritenour began to add stronger elements of pop to his music, beginning with his album Rit. That was followed by Rit/2 and Banded Together.
He has been nominated for 16 Grammy awards, most recently for his album Two Worlds, which includes the works of Bach, Villa-Lobos and Torroba, as Best Classical Crossover album. His album Earth Run was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Fusion Jazz Fusion Performance. The album’s title track was Grammy nominated in the category of Best Instrumental Composition. Several of his albums have been nominated as Best Contemporary Jazz Performance. And he and Dave Grusin won the Grammy for Best Arrangement on an Instrumental for “Early A.M. Attitude” from their album Harlequin.
For years, Ritenour said, people had been telling him he had to make a solo guitar record. “In the past, I’ve always been the band guy, the ensemble guy, the collaborative-guitar-player guy,” he said. “So, this was the one project I hadn’t done.” In 2020, he knew it was time. The result: Dreamcatcher.
The 12 tracks on the album have been described as “the most melodic and tinglingly beautiful in Rintenour’s catalog.” But there is also a dark side to the music. His house and studio in Malibu burned down in 2018.
“About 100 of my guitars went up in the fire plus 40 amps, lots of music, the history of my whole career, pretty much. A week after the fire, I went to the hospital, which I’d never head to do before, for surgery to replace an aortic valve.
“So those incidents and the support from my family and friends absolutely went into this music. Making this record was a lifesaver for me,” Ritenour said.
Dreamcatcher was also influenced by the pandemic, as expressed in “2020.” In the three-part symphony, Ritenour takes the pulse of the times. “The three parts were a reflection of what was going on that year,” Ritenour said, “when all of a sudden everybody’s life shut down. I was thinking about the young musicians that were out of work – and people in every walk of life.”
Lake Arrowhead resident George Whitty will join Lee Ritenour on stage.
Ritenour will bring his music to the Blue Jay Jazz Festival on Friday, Aug. 22 at the Tavern Bay Beach Club. On stage with him will be the mountain’s own George Whitty, a Grammy award winning jazz keyboardist. Whitty has spent 30 years playing on the road with the Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Chaka Khan, Sadao Watanabe and many others.
His Grammy-winning streak began with Chaka Khan’s The Woman I Am in 1992 and extends through three award-winning releases with the Brecker Brothers, most recently Randy Brecker’s 34th N Lex, 2004’s Grammy-winner for Contemporary Jazz Record of the Year.
Tickets are available at www.bluejayjazz.org. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Guests are invited to bring their own food and beverages. Gates open at 6 p.m. with the concert at 7 p.m.
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