Maestro’s anniversary

Half a century ago was when the amazing career of Lee Ritenour, a great guitarist, started. An author and performer, he has recorded some forty albums and released a number of works as a producer. Lee is also credited with the gathering of Fourplay, an ensemble considered by many as the best contemporary jazz outfit. That is right, jazz is the music that Lee Ritenour has dedicated his whole life to. He can not imagine his existence without jazz, and jazz would be so much different if this man did not play it. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his musical career, that he, by the way, started at the age of sixteen, Lee designed a grand project that was called 6 String Theory. Formally, this is just another studio long player to go to Ritenour’s richest discography, but, is its essence, this is a massive work that highlights the labor of many mega popular guitarists. The interesting thing is that not all of them actually play jazz. The trends of music presented by these instrumentalists are so variegated and numerous that some of them are united by only one feature, and that is the usage of one and the same six string instrument, guitar.

Jazz and much more

The size limitations do not allow the author of this review to outline the complete list of those who took part in the making of 6 String Theory because altogether there were about twenty of them. However, it is necessary to inform the listeners that, apart from Lee himself, you will hear the works of rocker Slash, bluesman B.B. King and jazzman George Benson. No matter what guitar genre you are a fan of, you will certainly find something you will like among those fifteen tracks stored by the album. 6 String Theory provides samples of what country, rock and blues should sound like; but, of course, jazz is what you will hear most of time. Jazz, actually, greets you in the very beginning. Ritenour, supported by his colleagues, delivers energetic Lay it Down. The other worthiest jazz-tracks are cheery L.P. (For Les Paul), and My One and Only Love with a supreme solo from Benson. Rock-oriented material is best presented by 68 with a cross-solo from three gurus. The noticeable part is that Ritenour did take part in the creation of all the songs, but performing different functions. Sometimes, he did not take the six string instrument, but remained in the booth and enjoyed the producer’s duties. Besides, Lee wrote only a tiny part of the set, which is not characteristic of his albums.

An ode to guitar

Guitar is an amazing instrument that form musical core for most different trends where it tends to sound so much different. And if you are not sure of this fact, 6 String Theory is what you are destined to listen to. Should the title of the work be also an academic discipline, all of those who contributed to this project would get pass the exams effortlessly. In fact, with a rare exception (first of all, we are talking about the sixteen-year aged prodigy Shaun Boubil), the musicians who worked on this CD are those who have already earned worldwide star reputation. Moreover, some of them had an experience of collaborating with Lee Ritenour before they have their yes to this idea. And Lee, the man who is behind all this initiative, felt completely secure and confident about the final success of this product. 6 String Theory is all about the music and is not intended to draw your attention to a deluxe design, controversial images of the performers or provocative lyrics. You will not find any of it here, but the music. The music here has so many faces, and the same time it is always of top quality and imminently a sheer pleasure to all those who praise guitar.

Alex Bartholomew
16.07.2010