January is starting the year of with a feast for guitar fans. In just these four short weeks you can see (deep breath) Mike Stern, Eric Johnson, Alan Holdsworth, Julian Lage, Nels Cline,Larry Koonse, Bill Frisell and of course the weekly jams of John Pisano with anyone within driving distance.
Starting off this guitar-wielding year was one of the first and best guys to make jazz guitar popular for Baby Boomers. Lee Ritenour, celebrating his birthday this weekend at Catalina’s, gave the packed house a reason for celebrating the joys of axe with a mix of jazz, blues, fusion and funk that was both celebratory and sophisticated.
The all star team of Ritenour with Tom Kennedy/b, Makoto Ozone/key and Dave Weckl/dr got the set off with a rousingly swinging take of “Death March” that had Ritenour’s strings cutting like a knife through the steamy swirls of Ozone’s B3. The blues were brewing on “Overtime” as the crowd almost got second hand smoke from the fired created by the quartet. On the graceful “Waltz for Carmen” Ritenour skated like Dorothy Hamill over the frosty and sleek Hammond, with the strings being picked, strummed and plucked like dainty raindrops.
Things revved up a bit when Weckl (who also celebrated his birthday this weekend) laid down a serious backbeat, Kennedy warmed up his six string electric bass and Ritenour bore down with Ozone for a frenetic rocker on “P.A.L.S” while on the funky and snappy new piece “Work” Ozone’s Hammond kept gasping for air, but Kennedy’s bass kept slapping it back down with a relentless thumb. A rosy and fragrant new ballad calmed things down before Ritenour and company closed the set with his well known “Village” which after all these years still sounds fresh, class and swinging. Isn’t that why you fell in love with jazz anyway?
Upcoming shows at Catalina’s include Tierney Sutton (Jan 16-18) and Steve Gadd (Jan 29-31)