Artist:Lee Ritenour f/John Scofield
Song:Lay It Down
Album:6 String Theory
Normally I like to give an overview of an artist. But I haven't done that yet for jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. This 2010 album 6 String Theory was released to celebrate Ritenour's 50th anniversary in jazz. He actually released his first album as a leader in 1976. 6 String Theory has a different guitarist on each song. He also launched a 6 String Theory competition for aspiring jazz guitarists. Shon Boubil won the first contest and he won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston and he got to play on the album. Boubil is working on his Ph.D. in theoretical physics and education at the University of Western Australia. So it remains to be seen if Boubil becomes a musician. I have my doubts. Ritenour holds the competition every two years and it has expanded to include piano, bass and drums. All the winners got Berklee scholarships. I guess Ritenour's thinking is no one did this for him when he was coming up. He just wants to pay it forward. The idea for the album came first. It inspired Ritenour to start the competition. Lay It Down was the first song on the album featuring guitarist John Schofield. I could be wrong but I don't think they had ever recorded together. It's an original song written, produced and arranged by Ritenour. The other musicians are Larry Goldings on organ, Melvin Lee Davis on bass and Harvey Mason Sr. on drums. Other guests include Keb' Mo, Taj Mahal, Pat Martino, Joey DeFrancesco, Joe Bonamassa, Robert Cray, Steve Lukather, Neal Schon, Slash, George Benson, Vince Gill, Jonny Lang, Joe Robinson, Andy McKee, Mike Stern, Tomoyasu Hotei, Guthrie Gowan, Tai Wilkenfeld and Shon Boubil. This album is available on CD. This album is on Concord. Ritenour's latest album Brasil was released on Candid last year. Ritenour is usually on tour. He's on a break right now but he'll be back on the road in January. Here's Lee Ritenour with Otmaro Ruiz on keyboards, Hadrien Feraud on bass and Wesley Ritenour on drums performing Lay It Down at the Blue Note in Hawaii 2018.
Thank you Frank. I only knew of Lee Ritenour from one of his songs. A light pop hit called, Is it You? Which I heard on the radio back in the 70's. I had no idea he was a Jazz musician at all. Or of his charity work sending young musicians to university's. That is great. Good for him. David.
ReplyDeleteI haven't covered his 70s albums on Epic yet. I wrote about this one because it was a special album. He also recorded for Dave Grusin's label GRP. Grusin wrote and performed the theme for St. Elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThank-you Frank. I did not know any of this about him and I love hearing about all the music he did and his accomplishments. There is quite a lot about this gentleman. David.
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