Lee Ritenour with Dave Grusin, Tom Kennedy and Chris Coleman at Yoshi’s

Please join Lee and Dave for 2 very special nights featuring Tom Kennedy on Bass and Chris Coleman on Drums!

Friday, December 13
8pm $28 & 10pm $19

Saturday, December 14
7:30pm $34 & 9:30pm $25

Yoshi’s Oakland

http://www.yoshis.com/oakland/jazzclub/artist/show/3862

510 Embarcadero West
Jack London Square
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: 510.238.9200

Lee Ritenour – guitar
Dave Gruisin – piano/keyboards
Tom Kennedy – bass
Christopher Coleman – drums

In a career that spans five decades and more than 40 albums, guitarist Lee Ritenour has developed a keen understanding of the symbiotic balance between the frontman and the supporting players, between the wisdom of experience and the enthusiasm of youth. On his latest album Rhythm Sessions, Ritenour surrounds himself with a cadre of high-profile veterans and promising newcomers – all of whom reaffirm the vital role played by the rhythm section in any worthwhile musical endeavor.

Included on the Rhythm Sessions roster are luminaries like Chick Corea, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Dave Grusin, Marcus Miller and many others. Also appearing throughout the record are the winners of Ritenour’s 2012 Rhythm Section Competition, an international event he launched in 2009 as a guitar competition and later expanded to include aspiring keyboardists, bassists and percussionists. The competition winners appearing on the album include keyboardist Hans de Wild (Holland), pianist Demetrius Nabors (Michigan), bassist Michael Feinberg (New York) and drummer Selim Munir (Turkey). The album also features Ritenour’s 19-year-old son Wesley, an aspiring drummer in his own right on one of the tracks.

“I always thought it’s a very cool model to combine very well-known, almost legendary players with completely new talent on the same record,” says Ritenour. “I love that scenario. It’s not a format that many people have followed before, but I’ve always considered it a fascinating experiment, and a way to create some great sounds.”

Dave Grusin has been a highly successful performer, producer, composer, record label executive, arranger, and bandleader. As a pianist, Grusin tends toward the fusion and smooth end of jazz, but he’s primarily an accomplished film and television soundtrack composer. Grusin played with Terry Gibbs and Johnny Smith while studying at the University of Colorado. He was the assistant music director and pianist for Andy Williams from 1959 to 1966, and then started his television composing career. Grusin recorded with Benny Goodman in 1960, and with a hard bop trio which included Milt Hinton and Don Lamond in the early ’60s. He also played and did a session with a quintet including Thad Jones and Frank Foster. Grusin did arrangements and recorded with Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones, and Carmen McRae in the early ’70s. He played electric keyboards with Gerry Mulligan and Lee Ritenour in the mid-’70s, then helped to establish GRP Records out of a production company. GRP developed into one of the top contemporary jazz and fusion companies; they were later taken over by Arista, then by MCA. Grusin continued recording through the ’80s and ’90s, doing numerous projects, from fusion and pop to working with symphony orchestras. He has also conducted the GRP Big Band, scored such films as The Fabulous Baker Boys, and performed duet sessions with his brother, Don, and Ritenour. In addition to his numerous GRP releases, Grusin has also recorded for Columbia, Sheffield Lab, and Polygram. In 2011, he released the concert album and DVD An Evening with Dave Grusin, which featured him backed by the 75-piece Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra revisiting works from throughout his varied career.