Search - Lee Ritenour :: Wes Bound

Wes Bound: All Roads Lead To Boss City

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 01/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""I think - I hope - I've done justice to Wes without losing my own identity." ~ Lee Ritenour



I've had this CD since 1993 and love it. It was a gift to me along with tickets to watch Lee Ritenour's live concert at the Universal Amphitheatre in the nineties and after listening to the CD and watching the concert, I have included him in my list of favorite guitarists of all-time. This CD topped the Billboard Jazz Chart in 1993 and is a tribute to a great jazz legend, Wes Montgomery, who was the greatest influence Lee Ritenour's guitar playing. Mr. Ritenour's style has been impressively influenced by Brazilian music but retained his own distinctive sound.



This CD consists of ten marvelous tracks in which four are his very own compositions: "Wes Bound," "A Little Bumpin'," "A New Day" and "Ocean Ave." The rest of the tracks are all original compositions of the great Wes Montgomery. Track #5 "Waiting In Vain" was written by Bob Marley and the lead vocal was provided by Maxi Priest.



Some of the highlights for me are the initial/title track "Wes Bound" which has a very contemporary groove, followed by Montgomery's "Boss City" which Ritenour interpreted splendidly with a shuffle style. "Ocean Ave." is also one of the best tracks and has some of the finest musicians backing him up, an incomparable pianist, Alan Broadbent and a skilled drummer and percussionist, Harvey Mason, to name a few.



I especially love track # 4, his own composition "A Little Bumpin'" with my all-time favorite contemporary jazz artist whom I also watched in a live concert, Bob James on piano.



Following are notable quotes from Lee Ritenour about his great jazz legend idol, Mr. Wes Montgomery:



"Intoxicating" is a word Lee Ritenour keeps repeating when he discusses the music of Wes Montgomery, intoxicating to play, and intoxicating to hear."



"Like every guitar player who's arrived on the scene since the sixties, I owe a great debt to Wes Montgomery."



"Wes music is so captivating, it can almost make you forget who you are."



"It amazes me that so many of today's young musicians are not familiar with Wes. I think he should be right up there with Ellington, Armstrong and Miles. So if I can introduce him to some of the younger musicians - jazz, rock, whatever - who don't know who he is, I'll be real happy."



I must admit and I'm sure you'll agree with me that this is guitar playing at its very BEST! I highly recommend this CD to all guitar music enthusiasts.

"

A tribute to the guitar groove master!!!

G. Bates | Rockford, IL USA | 11/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have listened to Rit for years. I bought this CD when it first came out. Hard to believe that was almost 11 years ago. I pick tis CD up frequently. If you never knew who Wes Montgomery (I didn't before this CD) was, this CD is the best tribute done to date. With the excpetion of 1 vocal track, this is instrumental music at its finest. In recent years, Ritenour has done tribute music to genre as opposed to a single artist (Twist of Jobim is good too, another single artist).



What does it say about an artist who has recorded so much music, played the rock stuff and so many other styles and then spends the later part of his career paying tribute to the greats before him. This project is one of those efforts and a sign of maturity and security in one's ability. Enjoy!!!"

Waddabout the keyboards?

Jonathan May | Brunei SE Asia | 06/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm mainly buying this album for the smoking Hammond organ playing which features on several tracks that I remember from a 'sampler' CD I heard quite a few years ago now. My friend worked for a radio station that was sent the sampler as a forerunner (I guess) to the album's release."