Lee Ritenour Overtime CD

Overtime is really two CDs in one. On the instrumentals, particularly "Bass City" and "Blue in Green," guitarist Lee Ritenour sounds a lot like Wes Montgomery and he leads his group (which features either Ernie Watts or Eric Marienthal on tenor) through some relatively straight-ahead numbers filled with soulful and creative playing. However the five vocals numbers are much more in the R&B/smooth vein and are largely throwaways despite the occasional presence of Ivan Lins. Clearly Ritenour was going for variety on this project but will probably only satisfy his greatest fans. The jazz listeners will be turned off by the vocals and the pop/smooth fans will probably only tolerate some of the more adventurous originals. Ritenour sounds fine in both settings but probably should have recorded twice as much music and split this CD into two. ~ Scott Yanow

Overtime is really two CDs in one. On the instrumentals, particularly "Bass City" and "Blue in Green," guitarist Lee Ritenour sounds a lot like Wes Montgomery and he leads his group (which features either Ernie Watts or Eric Marienthal on tenor) through some relatively straight-ahead numbers filled with soulful and creative playing. The five vocal numbers are much more in the R&B/smooth vein and occasionally feature the presence of Ivan Lins. Clearly Ritenour was going for variety on this project. He sounds fine in both settings but probably should have recorded twice as much music and split this CD into two. ~ Scott Yanow

Arrangers: Lee Ritenour ; Dave Grusin.

Personnel: Lee Ritenour (guitar); Lee Ritenour ; Ivan Lins (vocals, Fender Rhodes piano); Eric Marienthal (flute, saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Patrice Rushen (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer); Dave Carpenter (acoustic bass, double bass); Melvin Davis, Anthony Jackson (bass guitar); Steve Forman (percussion); Tim Carmen (programming); Grady Harrell, Kenya Hathaway (vocals); Ernie Watts (tenor saxophone); Chris Botti (trumpet); Dave Grusin (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Barnaby Finch (keyboards); Harvey Mason, Sr. , Oscar Seaton (drums); Alex Acuña (percussion); Jochem van der Saag (programming).

Recording information: Enterprise STudios, Los Angeles, CA (2004).

JazzTimes (p.103) - "Ritenour reaches back to the '70s for the title track from his 1977 album CAPTAIN FINGERS, turning in some lightning-fast fingerwork."