LEE RITENOUR
Smoke 'N' Mirrors
Peak Records
Win
one of two signed copies of Smoke 'n' Mirrors OR
one of three unsigned copies!!!!
Lee Ritenour has recorded over 30 solo albums
as a leader and played on thousands of legendary sessions
for other artists, including Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Herbie
Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others. His early fusion
work, particularly his 1977 album Captain Fingers,
established him as one of the premier jazz-rock guitarists
of the day. Subsequent material has often been criticized
as lightweight and overly commericalized, and there is no
doubt that Ritenour has often pursued a commercial agenda.
In fact, the guitarist had two tracks featured on the first
hour of MTV broadcast, a fact that was brought back to light
recently when the network re-ran their first 24 hours of
broadcasting in celebration of their anniversary.
More recent recordings have found Ritenour
seeming to break out of the smooth jazz ghetto. 2005’s
Overtime was something of a career retrospective with many
guests that found a balance between the popular and the
musical. His latest release, Smoke ‘N’ Mirrors
is even better. Filled with new material and a boatload
of musical guests, the album combines gentle world music
grooves, some genuine jazz guitar work a la Wes Montgomery,
and, yes, some smooth late-nite grooves that will no doubt
sound great on FM radio. And this disc sounds absolutely
gorgeous, with a beautiful depth of sound and an innate
warmth behind the studio sheen that is a tribute to Ritenour
the producer as well as the musician.
The opening title track has a nice Latin/Caribbean
groove courtesy of some solid bass work from Melvin Davis
and Richard Bona, with percussion work by Vinnie Coloita,
Alex Acuna, and Sheila E. Ritenour plays acoustic and electric
guitars as well as synth bass and some programming. In fact,
Lee plays an amazing array of guitars on this disc, electric,
acoustic, baritone, 12-string, you name it. Other standout
tracks include Dave Grusin’s “Northwest Passage,”
an acoustic group performance, “Blue Days” featuring
Daniel Jobim, grandson of Antonio Carlos Jobim, a version
of gypsy guitarist Gabor Szabo’s “Spellbinder,”
a chill version of Freddie Hubbard’s “Povo,”
and a smooth version of Patrice Rushen’s “Forget
Me Nots.”
Ritenour relates that due to the scope of
the project, the numerous musicians used, and the many guitar
textures that he chose to incorporate on Smoke ‘N’
Mirrors, the album took eight months to compose, record,
and mix. Often on this kind of project, enthusiam may wane
during the laborious work on the album, and the end result
can sound less than cohesive and sometimes pasted together.
Not so with Smoke ‘N’ Mirrors. It is
to everyone’s credit, but particularly Ritenour’s
that the album sounds so good and fits together so well
that it might easily have been recorded more quickly by
a single group of musicians. Ritenour may have sometimes
overplayed his commercial hand in a quest for successful
records in the past, but this is one of his best, an album
that will resonate with a wide array of listeners. Sometimes
the phrase ‘something for everyone’ can make
listeners leary of a recording, suggesting that is tries
many things but does few of them well. Have no fear here—this
is an interesting, arresting, and very different album from
Lee Ritenour.
