Lee Ritenour Rit

Color Rit begins right where Festival left off, with Brazilian-flavored electric jazz and Rit handling the acoustic guitar, but soon veers closer to a more generic L.A.-based series of sounds and textures. Ritenour adds electric guitar to several tracks, although the acoustic instrument dominates the album. Ernie Watts is back on a couple of cuts, but the bulk of the backup is provided by the likes of keyboardists Dave Witham, Larry Williams and Russ Ferrante, bassist Jimmy Johnson, percussionist Paulinho Da Costa and drummer Carlos Vega. "All the Same Tonight," "Malibu" and "I Can't Let Go," with vocals by Phil Perry, thankfully don't sound quite as commercial as previous attempts on earlier Ritenour albums. Yet this CD represents a slight dip for Ritenour at a stage in his career when his albums were gradually becoming classier and more musical.

Lee Ritenour - Feel The Night
Vinyl Rip in 24-Bit/96-kHz | FLAC tracks | no cue | no log | Covers | Rapidshare + FileFactory | 820 MB
1979 | Genre: Jazz | Label: Elektra/Asylum | 6E-192 | US pressing

Released in 1979, “Feel the Night” belongs to a string of albums that definitely established Lee Ritenour as one of the world’s best and most sought after guitar players. All but one track are original jazz/fusion instrumentals written by Ritenour and Don Grusin and perfectly played by the guitar superstar with strong support from the usual suspects

( Leo Sayer & Vini Poncia )

A talented and adventurous altoist whose career has gone through several phases, John Handy started playing alto in 1949. After moving to New York in 1958, he had a fiery period with Charles Mingus (1958-1959) that resulted in several passionate recordings that show off his originality; he also recorded several dates as a leader for Roulette. Handy led his own bands during 1959-1964, and played with Mingus at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival, but it was at the following year's festival that he was a major hit, stretching out with his quintet (which included violinist Michael White and guitarist Jerry Hahn) on two long originals. Soon, Handy was signed to Columbia, where he recorded his finest work (three excellent albums) during 1966-1968…

"On The Line" is an in-studio concert. Seriously, read the liner notes! Lee fills the recording with big contemporary jazz names including Dave and Don Grusin on keyboards, Anthony Jackson and Nathan East sharing bass duties, and Ernie Watts on sax. This group then plays the entire set live, direct-to-disc. The album is a mixture of slow balladry, smooth-jazzy contemporary styling and a couple of thumping numbers that will have you trying to anticipate what the band will do next. This is a "must have" for any true Rit fan.

"On The Line" is an in-studio concert. Seriously, read the liner notes! Lee fills the recording with big contemporary jazz names including Dave and Don Grusin on keyboards, Anthony Jackson and Nathan East sharing bass duties, and Ernie Watts on sax. This group then plays the entire set live, direct-to-disc. The album is a mixture of slow balladry, smooth-jazzy contemporary styling and a couple of thumping numbers that will have you trying to anticipate what the band will do next. This is a "must have" for any true Rit fan.

This Lee Ritenour twin pack consists of two albums that were originally recorded by JVC for the Japanese market and saw release in the U.S., almost as an afterthought. The proof of this is that Rio and On the Line were licensed for American issue first by Elektra before getting their subsequent GRP packages. By the time GRP put them on the market, these packages were separated by a decade in terms of recording time. Rio is an all acoustic recording which has aged quite nicely over the decades, while On the Line, with three different bands and a handful of direct-to-some-kind-of-digital processes, sounds flat, dated, and in places simply tired. Hardcore Rit fans won't care, but novices should be wary.