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Tag: Lee Ritenour

MATCHMAKERS

from THE CAPTAIN’S JOURNEY

Written by Lee Ritenour

 

The Captain’s Journey, released in 1978, was Lee Ritenour’s sixth release coming right after the seminal Captain Fingers one year before. The legendary guitarist again assembled an amazing cast of musicians, singers and arrangers to deliver a fresh jazz/fusion masterpiece. David Foster was again on board for the project and arranged and played keyboards on a couple of tracks. One was a vocal rendition of Ritenour’s classic instrumental, “Morning Glory” featuring another Bill Champlin vocal after his fantastic job on the cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” on Captain Fingers. Foster arranged the song and played acoustic piano on it. A previous review of this song can be rediscovered in the archives.

SPACE GLIDE

from CAPTAIN FINGERS
Written by Eddie Arkin & Mitch Holder

Over the course of their long and successful careers, David Foster and legendary guitarist Lee Ritenour crossed paths many times starting with the magical L.A. session years of the seventies where they would often show up on the same dates to the guitarist’s 1981 RIT album that Foster co-produced and which became a best-seller. The Hitman and Ritenour even co-headlined a Japanese tour in 1987 and often appeared on each other’s solo efforts including Foster’s The Symphony Sessions.

IN THE WAY

from DREAMWALKIN’
Written by Eric Tagg

“Eric, I remember him being an amazing singer! He had great taste in music. My favorite track that we did together was ‘Mr. Briefcase,’ a very tricky and complicated song.”

PLAYING WITH FIRE

from DAVID FOSTER
written by David Foster & Michael Landau

 

David Foster’s 1985 instrumental hit, “Love Theme From St. Elmo’s Fire,” gave the Canadian super-producer the chance to record a whole album of evocative instrumental themes for Atlantic Records. Aptly titled David Foster, it was the introduction of Foster’s multiple talents to mainstream audiences after more than a decade of hard work in the studio as session player, writer, producer and arranger. David Foster featured Foster’s keyboard wizardry using all the advanced technology of those days including synths and sequencers such as the Fairlight CMI, Linn drum machine, Kurzweil, Roland Jupiter-8, Wendell Junior, Emulator 3, as well as many others. Although the sound result may be a tad cold for today’s ears, it was a standard of excellence back in the day. Foster’s superior art of composing and arranging came through beautifully. The rock/fusion landscapes of “Playing With Fire” from David Foster is the pick for this week’s review.

GOOD QUESTION

from MR. BRIEFCASE/GOOD QUESTION (single)

written by Lee Ritenour

The ear-candy, pop/rock rhythms of Lee Ritenour’s “Mr. Briefcase” was the subject of one of the earlier reviews back in 2003. This week, “Good Question” was mined as another song from the legendary guitarist’s 1981 Rit album.