🎷 AotW: Jazz Lee Ritenour - ALIVE IN L.A.

[Captain Bacardi]

Lee Ritenour
ALIVE IN L.A.
GRP Records

Released 1997

Peaked at #11 on the Top Contemporary Jazz Chart (1997)

Produced & Arranged by Lee Ritenour for Captain Fingers Productions

Songs:

1. A Little Bumpin' (Lee Ritenour) - 5:04​

2. Night Rhythms (Lee Ritenour) - 7:07​

3. Boss City (Wes Montgomery) - 6:21​

4. San Juan Sunset (Deodato) - 5:11​

5. Uptown (Lee Ritenour) - 7:32​

6. Waltz For Carmen (Lee Ritenour/Mitch Holder) - 6:10​

7. Wes Bound (Lee Ritenour) - 6:54​

8. Pacific Nights (Lee Ritenour) - 3:30​

9. Rio Funk (Lee Ritenour) - 6:23​

10. 4 On 6 (Wes Montgomery) - 9:51​

​

Musicians:
Lee Ritenour - Guitars
Bill Evans - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones
Alan Pasqua - Piano, Hammond B3, Rhodes
Sonny Emory - Drums
Melvin Davis - Bass
Barnaby Finch - Keyboards

Recorded Live January 23-25, 1997 at the Ash Grove, Santa Monica, CA
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Don Murray
Additional Engineering by Dave Kuhn, Tim Noland, Charlie Bouis, Ted Barela, David Gallo and Eric Johnston
Photography: James Minchin
Art Direction and Design: Margo Chase Design
Liner notes by Lee Ritenour

Available at Amazon.com in mp3 format (with song samples): http://www.amazon.com/Alive-L-Lee-Ritenour/dp/B0000001WR/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1351653713&sr=1-1&keywords=lee ritenour alive in l.a


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

Nice collection of tunes on this live set, which span his career. "Night Rhythms" is one of my favorite tracks of Rit's, which comes from the excellent Brazilian-themed album Festival--nice to see it on this set. "Rio Funk" hails back even further. I haven't yet heard this one but will pick it up shortly...I'm behind on his albums. I will say that despite his session work on pop recordings and some of his lighter-weight recordings, there is a lot more to his talent than most give him credit for.

 

[Dave]

The Wes Montgomery-written stuff is nice and whatever Wes didn't write Lee does well, in an almost-Wes sound-alike fashion...

A nice, live club-setting, too... And a lot of distance from his Pop Chameleon session work as well...


-- Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I have found that the majority of Lee Ritenour's albums are rather boring. They tend to be more of a pop/smooth jazz variety. The exceptions have been his debut album Captain Fingers, which is one of my favorites, and the acoustic Rio, which was released on the old Elektra/Musician label. So when I got Alive In L.A. to review when I did CD reviews at 52nd Street I was expecting more of the Muzak pop stuff. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Rit actually shows some serious chops on this disc. I especially love the straight-ahead stuff like "Boss City" and "4 On 6" (my favorite track). This is a perfect setting for Rit and I'm surprised he hasn't done more of this stuff. He shows a lot of versatility from the sublime "Waltz For Carmen" to the aptly named "Rio Funk". A very strong album.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[toeknee4bz]

I have found that the majority of Lee Ritenour's albums are rather boring. They tend to be more of a pop/smooth jazz variety. The exceptions have been his debut album Captain Fingers, which is one of my favorites, and the acoustic Rio, which was released on the old Elektra/Musician label. So when I got Alive In L.A. to review when I did CD reviews at 52nd Street I was expecting more of the Muzak pop stuff. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Rit actually shows some serious chops on this disc. I especially love the straight-ahead stuff like "Boss City" and "4 On 6" (my favorite track). This is a perfect setting for Rit and I'm surprised he hasn't done more of this stuff. He shows a lot of versatility from the sublime "Waltz For Carmen" to the aptly named "Rio Funk". A very strong album.
Capt. Bacardi

"Boring"? Well,... depends on which albums you're talking about. I would say that his work in the late 70s, aside from CAPTAIN FINGERS and RIO, were the most boring of all. Since you don't appear to be into the pop stuff, you should probably stay away from the early 80s adult contemporary [vocal] albums RIT, RIT/2 and BANDED TOGETHER, which prominently featured a heavy synth pop sound, and the vocals of Eric Tagg.
If you care for more of the Brazilian theme that was started on RIO, check out HARLEQUIN, the album he did with Dave Grusin in 1985. This album also featured three outstanding Portuguese vocals by the Brazilian superstar, Ivan Lins.
EARTH RUN was heavily laden with the SynthAxe, so unless you're into guitar synthesizer, you might want to shy away on this one too.
PORTRAIT was a bit of a hodgepodge, starting out with Djavan singing Portuguese on "Asa", Eric Tagg reminiscing a light pop vocal on "Turn The Heat Up", then "Windmill", a quiet acoustic piece which changes the mood entirely. The rest of the album varies song to song through what you would call 'smooth jazz'.
FESTIVAL [all acoustic, like RIO] and COLOR RIT re-explore the Brazilian theme once again, with two vocal tracks, each featuring various artists and languages.
THIS IS LOVE is more of a smooth jazz effort, a good album... but perhaps not up your alley.
Ultimately, I think you would probably be more in tune with Rit's 1990 album, STOLEN MOMENTS. This was a straight ahead jazz album which featured "Waltz For Carmen", "24th Street Blues" the title track among others... all played on the 1952 Gibson L5.
And finally, WES BOUND, the tribute album to Wes Montgomery in 1993. All but one track were played on the L5, and a few Wes Montgomery originals, "Boss City", "Road Song" and "4 on 6" were given new arrangements.

 

[Rudy]

Portrait had a couple of tunes done with Yellowjackets, which is why I bought that one in the first place. That is the one that got me hooked and I started buying a few of his newer recordings as they came out. I'd say after that 80s and early 90s emphasis on the lighter side of jazz mixed with some good Brazilian vibes, his albums seemed to turn more toward the artistic side, starting with Wes Bound and Stolen Moments.

I should compile all of his Brazilian-themed songs into a playlist. They make for good listening. There are even a couple of gems tucked away on compilations, such as his version of Jobim's "Mojave" performed with Yellowjackets on the A Twist Of Jobim compilation.

I see a parallel between Ritenour and David Sanborn, who threw us all for a loop with his Another Hand after a series of pop-jazz albums that had a lot of success. And he's stretched himself somewhat after that album. Must say my favorite is Upfront which was the most funky/bluesy/greazy thing he's ever done IMHO. Love that Hammond B3 sound all over that album.

 

[toeknee4bz]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I love to follow an artist who is able to cross over the ecclectic bridge. Not much into Sanborn, even though his tonal quality is inmistakable. There's no doubt who it is when you hear his solos on pop tracks. As for his own albums, I couldn't really get into them as a whole.
But speaking for artist versatility: Artists like Herb Alpert, Lee Ritenour, among a select few others, it was pretty cool back in the day to be able to just go pick it out of the bin, take it to the register to be rung up, and go home KNOWING that you're going to like pretty much whatever was on the new recording, regardless of musical genre. Of course, every once in a while you'd be disappointed, but by and large it was the case of KNOWING that you're open to a myriad of styles within an artist's repertoire.
I saw Lee Ritenour live at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival in 1994. ALIVE IN L.A. is about as close as one could get to the feeling we had at Jacksonville Metropolitan Park. With one exception: When he played "Rio Funk", it was more like "Rio Rock" by the time it ended, played on a Gibson 335 and in the last few minutes was anything BUT jazz. This was at the end of the show, and as he closed it out with "4 on 6", he said: "Thank you very much. In honor of the "Jazz" festival, we would like to leave you with something a little more "jazzy"..."

 

[toeknee4bz]

 

[Dave]

One project that I loved Lee in is his Gentle Thoughts project, consisting of Anthony Jackson, Harvey Mason & Patrice Rushen...

Earth, Wind & Fire's 'Get Away', segued by Rit's own 'Captain Caribe' and 'Feel Like Makin' Love' segueing into 'Gentle Thoughts' are some great highlights!

Although it leans a lot towards "pop jazz" and fusion... But it's an LP that I would have easily give Four Stars to...

I'm the one who gave this three... It's a fairly challenging listen, though no "cutting" among the players; it's spontaneous, in that there are a few surprises & pleasant solos; there's good variety and sportsmanship, also among the players... Just not quite the thing to regularly play, in that it's strictly "live" audio, of which doesn't always translate well to my listening room, other than serving as a well-made concert document...


-- Dave

 

[Rudy]

Not much into Sanborn, even though his tonal quality is inmistakable. There's no doubt who it is when you hear his solos on pop tracks. As for his own albums, I couldn't really get into them as a whole.

A lot of his earlier albums had a sameness to them that didn't hold up well to repeat listening. To my ears, it was Another Hand and Upfront (which is bad-ass greazy and funky ) that really sealed the deal for me. The former is a total surprise if you haven't heard it--the obvious hit was his cover of NRBQ's "Hobbies" which is actually the only really popular song on the album, featuring the Q's Terry Adams on piano. When you have other musicians like Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell on the album (with one of their tracks covering a song as off-the-wall as Lou Reed's "Jesus"), you know it's going to be different.

 

[AM Matt]

AllMusic website gave it one of their picks of all the Lee Ritenour CD's!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Another nice album that Rit was a collaborator on was an album called Friendship that included Abe Laboriel, Alex Acuna and a couple of other top studio musicians.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[toeknee4bz]

Another nice album that Rit was a collaborator on was an album called Friendship that included Abe Laboriel, Alex Acuna and a couple of other top studio musicians.


Capt. Bacardi

Agreed. "Bullet Train" was the standout track on that lp. Wish I'd kept it!

 

[Dave]

A thin line between being one of the best damn guitarists in the whole World, known for playing such good Jazz, & unfortunately the wonder of the Partridge Family-pop that poor Rit sometimes got (& still gets) roped into doing:




-- Dave