First Course - 1976, Epic The 1st Album - Lee Ritenour

First Course - 1976, Epic The 1st Album - Lee Ritenour

Songs

• A Little Bit Of This And A Little Bit Of That mp3 | Windows Media
• Sweet Syncopation
• Theme From 'Three Days Of The Condor'
• Fatback
• Memories Past
• Caterpiller
• Canticle For The Universe
• Wild Rice
• Ohla Maria (amparo)

Musicians

Lee Ritenour — synthesizer, electric guitar, vocals, classical guitar

Bill Dickinson, Louis Johnson, Chuck Rainey — bass

Chuck Findley — trumpet

Dave Green, Ian Underwood — synthesizer

Ed Greene, Harvey Mason, Sr. — drums

Dave Grusin — organ, synthesizer, piano, clavinet

Larry Nash, Michael Omartian, Jerry Peters, Patrice Rushen — keyboards, clavinet

Jerome Richardson — saxophone (baritone)

Frank Rosolino — trombone

Tom Scott — saxophone (tenor), lyricon

Jerry Steinholtz — percussion, conga

Ernie Watts — saxophone (tenor)

Release Year - 1976 Label - Epic Catalog# - EK 46114 Recorded @ The Sound Labs Produced by Skip Drinkwater for Zembu Productions, Inc.

First Course is the first studio album released by jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. The album was released in 1976 on LP by the label Epic Records. It was re-released on CD by Sony Records in 1990.

The album was made at the time that Ritenour was still a session musician, perhaps considered the best of the time in Los Angeles, California next to Larry Carlton. He drafted friends and peers from Dante's and the Baked Potato club in Studio City, Los Angeles, California to record this "artifact of the early L.A. jazz/funk sound" Ritenour was worried about creating the album, as he has stated "I was still thinking as a "studio musician", and I was very worried about having my own identity on the guitar, because up until that time my job as a studio musician had been to be a "chameleon" ... it wasn’t until several years later that I felt more comfortable with who I was stylistically."

Financially, there were issues with the album, since the "sound perplexed studio executives" who were mainly looking for the next Bitches Brew or Return to Forever. This was melodic rhythm and blues-based jazz that didn't find a home until new wave-type radio stations became mainstream over a decade later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Course