Artist: Lee Ritenour
Album: Dreamcatcher
Genre: Smooth Jazz, Crossover Jazz, Fusion
Label: The Players Club
Released: 2020
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Dreamcatcher (4:23)
- Charleston (4:16)
- The Lighthouse (4:56)
- Morning Glory Jam (4:29)
- Starlight (4:01)
- Abbot Kinney (3:13)
- Couldn't Help Myself (4:30)
- For DG (4:48)
- Via Verde (3:15)
- Low & Slow (3:26)
- Storyteller (2:42)
- 2020 (9:13)
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It's hard to believe that in his over-50-year career, guitarist Lee Ritenour has never released a solo guitar album. He rectifies that fact on 2020's warmly delivered Dreamcatcher. The record follows Ritenour's star-studded 2015 album A Twist of Rit, in which he reworked songs from throughout his career with a bevy of special guests. Dreamcatcher finds him taking a more introspective, stripped-down approach, but one that still showcases his lyricism and adept fretboard skills. Recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritenour produced the album himself at his home, working remotely with studio assistance by Gary Lee and Brian McShea. There's an intimacy to the recordings that has the feeling of a small private concert, or it's as if you're eavesdropping on Ritenour just jamming for his own pleasure. Comfortable in electric and acoustic settings, and with a career that has straddled the rock, jazz, and pop worlds, the guitarist takes an equally expansive approach on Dreamcatcher. He dips into folky acoustic balladry on "Starlight," draws upon the sophisticated hollow-body style of Wes Montgomery on "The Lighthouse," and weaves a delicate patchwork of nylon-string harmonies on the classical-leaning title track. He even rips into far-eyed electric jazz-rock on "Abbot Kinney." There's a shimmering, textural quality to many of these songs as Ritenour laces together his warm melodies using just a modicum of aftereffects. We also get the nicely arranged "Couldn't Help Myself," a flowing instrumental that evokes Ritenour's '70s fusion work and features a mix of synths, percussion, and over 20 guitar tracks. Dreamcatcher is a relaxing, deceptively understated album that showcases Ritenour's laid-back virtuosity.
Review by Matt Collar