Dear Sir or Madam, website www.myday.si uses cookies, which are intended to record visits. This website does not use cookies that contain your personal information.

Do you allow the usage of cookies on this webpage?
Born on this day
Lee Mack Ritenour
2nd week in year
11 January 2019

Important personalitiesBack

Lee Mack Ritenour11.1.1952

Wikipedia (13 Mar 2013, 13:08)
Lee Mack Ritenour (born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976.[1] One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a pioneer in the Contemporary Jazz and jazz-funk genres of music.[citation needed]. Guitar Player Magazine awarded him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2010. His highly acclaimed and popular 2010 hit album Lee Ritenour's 6 String Theory had numerous awards in 2011 including, Guitar Album of the Year – Guitar International Magazine. UK’s Guitarist Magazine: The No. 1 Best 50 Guitar Albums of 2010. JAZZIZ Magazine Publisher’s Album of the Year. Top Albums of 2010 from Canada’s “The Guardian”. Lee was awarded at the 2011 Echo Awards in Germany (the German Grammy awards) for Best International Instrumentalist (Guitar) in conjunction with the album, 6 String Theory)

Biography

Ritenour was born January 11, 1952 in Los Angeles, California. He played his first session when he was 16 with the Mamas & the Papas and given the moniker, "Captain Fingers", because of his manual dexterity on the guitar. Ritenour was a sought-after session guitarist by the mid-1970s, and won Guitar Player magazine's Best Studio Guitarist twice in the 1970s. He is noted for playing his red Gibson ES-335 and his Gibson L5 guitars.

One of his most notable influences is the pioneering jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery among others like Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell and John McLaughlin. His prolific career includes a Grammy Award for the collaborative work Harlequin (1985), and 19 other Grammy nominations. Ritenour also holds the distinction of having two of the promotional videos for his songs "Is It You" and "Mr. Briefcase" being played during MTV's first day. Ritenour has been at the top of many guitar polls throughout the world.

Throughout his career, Ritenour has experimented with different styles of music. A true fusionist, he has often incorporated elements of funk, pop, rock, blues, Brazilian and most recently with Amparo (2008), classical music with jazz. In the early 1980s, Ritenour was given his own Ibanez signature model guitar, the LR-10. The LR-10 was produced from 1981 to 1987. It can be heard exclusively on his album Rit. Currently, Ritenour plays the Gibsons that he first played in the 1970s (the ES-335 and L5), and now also plays his signature Lee Ritenour Model archtop guitar made by Gibson.


   
" Beautiful moments of our lives."