Jazz Articles about Lee Ritenour
About Lee Ritenour
Instrument: Guitar
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsLee Ritenour: Behind a "Twist of Rit"

by Belinda Ware
Lee Ritenour is a musical talent who approaches jazz as an artist does a canvas. He takes time to explore colorful arrangements within each song he records mixing various degrees of fusion, rock, blues, and funk based on the feel of the song. Ritenour has become a master of his own style in creating music that reflects the story of each song he performs through the instrument of the guitar. He has an innate passion to create message music that ...
read moreLee Ritenour at Scullers

by Dave Dorkin
Lee Ritenour Scullers Boston, MA October 4, 2015 Guitarist Lee Ritenour has made a career as such a versatile session man (with session work ranging from Joe Henderson to Pink Floyd) and has done so many smooth jazz and pop dates that hardcore jazz fans can be forgiven for not having seen him burn live in the company of a real band on standards and his own originals. Ritenour assembled a vibrant ...
read moreBrazilians Spice Up Annual Montana Guitar Festival

by Mark Holston
Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival Flathead Lake Lodge Bigfork, Montana August 30-September 5, 2015 Forget for a moment the stellar roster of international guitar greats at Bigfork, Montana's annual Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival, their inspired performances and enthusiastic, SRO crowds. This annual weeklong mixture of master classes and nightly public performances on the grounds of a half century-old traditional dude ranch" boasts something that likely no other festival in the ...
read moreLee Ritenour: 6 String Theory

by John Kelman
The very gift that makes a session musician great can also be a curse. Oftentimes expected to be chameleon-like, it's that very act of becoming a credible musical shape-shifter that can sometimes lead to a loss of individuality. Lee Ritenour is a consummate and complete guitarist if ever there was one; his varied discography supporting a seemingly insatiable appetite for anything to do with the six-stringed instrument and all its variations. Often (and, in many cases, unfairly) linked too heavily ...
read moreLee Ritenour: Smoke 'n' Mirrors

by Woodrow Wilkins
With a deep admiration for Wes Montgomery and a penchant for Brazilian music, Lee Ritenour is one of the most prolific guitarists in modern jazz. Whether as a front man, sideman or member of a group, Captain Fingers can always be counted on for quality music. A Grammy winner, Ritenour has performed or recorded with several jazz, pop and R&B acts throughout his career, including Steely Dan, Bob James, Tony Bennett, The Mamas and the Papas and the Brothers Johnson, ...
read moreLee Ritenour: Smoke n' Mirrors

by Jeff Winbush
If travel is a broadening experience for the average Joe, it must be positively a revelation for the restless artist. Such is the case for Lee Ritenour, a musician who abandoned the comfort zone of cranking out innocuous jams for the far more risky territory of fusing world beat with contemporary jazz.In 2005, the guitarist performed in a series of concerts in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. The trip left such an impression upon him that for ...
read moreLee Ritenour: Overtime

by Woodrow Wilkins
In his three decades as a solo artist, guitarist Lee Ritenour has covered a lot of territory. While cranking out one excellent album after another as a frontman, he's also found time to sit in as a guest with other artists and even spent a few years as a member of the supergroup, Fourplay. Among those he has recorded or performed with are Maynard Ferguson, David Sanborn, the Brothers Johnson (remember Strawberry Letter # 23 ?), Djavan, Kenny G, the ...
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