Lee Ritenour Teams With Two Bassists on Latest Album

Fourplay founding member Lee Ritenour’s guitar work is all over popular music — he’s played more than 3,000 sessions, with everyone from Pink Floyd to Dizzy Gillespie, earned a Grammy for his 1986 collaboration with Dave Grusin, and netted 17 more Grammy nominations besides.

The jazz player’s latest album, A Twist of Rit, sees him join with an all-star band to create new versions of a variety of his tunes, as well as put their stamp on three newer songs: “Pearl,” “Twist of Rit,” and “W.O.R.K.n’ It.”

Ritenour’s band for the album includes bassists Melvin Lee Davis and Tom Kennedy, keyboardists John Beasley, Dave Grusin and Patrice Rushen; saxophonist Ernie Watts; and percussionist Paulinho Da Costa. Other players include drummers Dave Weckl, Ronald Bruner Jr. and Chris Coleman, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, flugelhorn player Rashawn Ross, guitarists Michael Thompson, Wah Wah Watson and David T. Walker, and Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the album’s evolution:

A Twist of Rit is available on CD and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).

A Twist of Rit Track List:

1. Wild Rice
2. Fatback
3. Ooh Yeah
4. Work’n It
5. A Little Bit Of This
6. Pearl
7. Twist Of Rit
8. Countdown
9. Soaring
10. Sweet Syncopation
11. Bullet Train
12. Waltz for Carmen