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| LEE RITENOUR with DAVE GRUSIN | ||||||||||||||
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Growing up in L.A. in the 60’s, Grammy award winning guitarist Lee Ritenour received a rich cross section of exposure to jazz, rock and Brazilian music. From one of his first sessions at 16 with the Mamas and Papas to accompanying Lena Horne and Tony Bennett at 18, his forty year eclectic and storied career is highlighted by a Grammy Award win for his 1986 collaboration with Dave Grusin, Harlequin; 17 Grammy nominations; numerous #1 spots in guitar polls and the prestigious “Alumnus of the Year” award from USC. He has recorded over 40 albums, with 35 chart songs, notably the Top 15 hit “Is It You,” which has become a contemporary jazz radio classic. In the 90s, Ritenour was a founding member of Fourplay, the most successful band in contemporary jazz, with keyboardist Bob James, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason. The first Fourplay album in 1991 spent an unprecedented 33 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s contemporary jazz chart. Adding to this legacy is his latest CD Smoke ‘n’ Mirrors; the recently completed Grammy nominated recording Amparo, (a followup with Dave Grusin to their highly successful 2001 Grammy Award nominated contemporary classical crossover CD) and producer of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band’s latest CD Act Your Age. It’s been a long road since the seventies, when Ritenour’s legendary Tuesday night appearances at the famed Baked Potato, with a band including Dave Grusin, Patrice Rushen, Harvey Mason and Ernie Watts became part of the musical landscape for five years. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Joe Sample, and even Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell could be seen in the audiences that would pack the house till the wee hours of the morning. From rock to blues to jazz, his diverse music became the foundation of over 3,000 sessions as a young guitarist with a broad spectrum of artists such as Pink Floyd (The Wall), Steely Dan (Aja), Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand. Not to forget the dazzling array of talent appearing on his solo works and collaborations, notably-- Phil Collins, Brazilian greats Ivan Lins, Caetano Veloso, Djavan and Jao Bosco, George Benson, Chaka Kahn, Herbie Hancock, Michael McDonald and opera great Renee Fleming. DAVE GRUSIN In a remarkably prolific career that spans nearly five decades, Dave Grusin has distinguished himself as a composer, arranger, musician and bandleader, as well as a recording artist with over 25 albums to his credit and co-founder of the influential jazz label GRP. Perhaps the most impressive element of his monumental resume is his status as one of America's premier soundtrack composers, with more than 60 feature film scores (as well as numerous television projects) under his belt. Grusin's vividly evocative movie work—which has earned him eight Academy Award nominations—draws upon jazz, pop, and classical, as well as a variety of ethnic traditions. Dave Grusin's identities as world-class film composer and accomplished, expressive pianist converge, with compelling results, on his new GRP release Now Playing. The album finds the artist performing intimate solo piano interpretations of 15 soundtrack pieces, including favorites from such crowd-pleasing hits as On Golden Pond, Tootsie and The Firm and lesser-known pieces from sleepers like Havana, Mulholland Falls and The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. A particular favorite of Grusin's is the Hispanic-flavored three-part suite from his Oscar-winning soundtrack for 1988's The Milagro Beanfield War. Noting the enduring quality of the pieces that comprise Now Playing, Grusin observes, "I think that, because of the evocative nature of this stuff, it has a certain staying power. It's not trendy, but it's not going to go away either. "It was interesting to have a chance to go over everything again and resurrect some things that seemed to work for piano," Grusin notes, adding, "A lot of the original pieces were not originally piano-based—the themes from Havana were orchestral, and Heaven Can Wait was written for soprano sax, because that's what Warren Beatty's character played in the film. So it was an interesting challenge getting them to work for piano. In a few instances, it wasn't possible for me to physically play the piece and get all the material in, so I kind of cheated and overdubbed second tracks. Grusin broke into feature-film scoring when Andy Williams Show producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin tapped him to provide the music for their 1967 comedy Divorce American Style. He took to the assignment immediately. "The whole process was fascinating to me, and I learned quickly," he recalls. Grusin quickly emerged as part of a vanguard of new, cutting-edge soundtrack composers, demonstrating the range of his talents on such diverse projects as the smash social satire The Graduate, the period drama The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, the revisionist western Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and the psychedelic comedy romp Candy. It's a combination of enthusiasm and creativity that's allowed Dave Grusin to excel in his far-ranging musical endeavors for nearly half a century. And it's those same qualities that make Now Playing such a potent representation of Grusin's timeless artistry. |
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