First came the house fire. Then heart surgery. Now Lee Ritenour bounces back with Dreamcatcher, the first solo guitar record of his long career.

BY MARK McSTEA PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX SOLCA

Lee Ritenour with his Sadowsky SS-15

IN A CAREER that spans more than 50 years, Lee Ritenour has played on tracks recorded by some of music’s biggest names. Aretha Franklin, Joe Henderson, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, David “Fathead” Newman, George Benson, Pink Floyd — those are just some of the artists Ritenour has worked with. Along the way, he launched his own solo career in 1976 with the album First Course, performed as a member of Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra, and recorded three chart-topping albums with the smooth-jazz group Fourplay. He’s also become known for playing a red dot-neck Gibson ES-335 that he’s used throughout his career.

“EVERYTHING WAS THERE: ABOUT 40 TO 50 AMPS, MAYBE A HUNDRED GUITARS, MUSIC FROM SINCE I WAS 12 YEARS OLD”

Growing up in L.A. in the 1960s, Ritenour began playing guitar at age eight, and by about the age of 15 had cut what he calls his “first big one,” a demo session with the Mamas and the Papas. By his own estimation Ritenour has recorded approximately 45 albums, yet until the release of his new record, Dreamcatcher (Mascot Label Group), he had never recorded a true solo album, one created without input from other musicians or producers. Made at his home studio in Marina del Rey, California, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dreamcatcher finds him, for once, flying on his own. “People have been telling me for years, ‘Rit, you gotta make a solo guitar record,’” he relates. “In the past, I’ve always been the band guy, the ensemble guy, the collaborative-guitarplayer guy. So this was the one project I hadn’t done. And this year, I knew it was time.”

It certainly was. Covid-19 wasn’t the only thing the 69-year-old has had to deal with. In 2018, the house and studio he and his wife owned in Malibu burnt down in one of the fires that has ravaged California. “About 100 of my guitars went up in the fire, plus 40 amps, lots of music, the history of my whole career, pretty much,” Ritenour says. One week after, he had surgery to replace a heart valve. Afterward, Ritenour picked himself up and delivered one of the best albums of his career. “Those incidents and the support from my family and friends absolutely went into this music,” he says. “Making this record was a lifesaver for me.”

How long had you been planning to record a solo album?

I was thinking about doing this solo project as far back as 2017, and I’d been putting it together in my head for several years. I’ve done so many albums, and I love working with a band. I’m a collaborative guy, and I love to work with great musicians, so I never thought of myself as a solo artist. I’ve been gradually expanding the solo part of my live show where it is just me, and a lot of people were encouraging me to do something on my own, so I finally decided the time was right. After the fire, I had to start over in a rental house in Marina del Rey, where I set up a recording room from scratch. It felt like the time to finally get down to making the album.