The cover of Lee Ritenour’s 1978 album The Captain’s Journey shows him posing next to a blowup of a Gibson 335 at Balboa Angling Club in Newport Beach, Ca. Whether that maritime photoshoot was the origin of the term “yacht jazz” is unknown, but the often derogatory tag has been applied to Ritenour and Grusin’s smooth jazz since the style emerged in the 1970s. It was seen by the more radically minded in the jazz world as a betrayal of the real, political thing, as an expression of bourgeois comfort. But in reality its sophisticated arrangements of mellifluous, bluesy funk exhibited as much if not more musical skill and content than much of the militant variety.
The venerable duo brought some classics and some new material from their current album, Brasil, to Ronnie’s for two nights in late July. I suppose one could refer to the Ritenour-Grusin duo (now, respectively, 72 and 90 years old) as “living legends”. (But let’s avoid the “iconic” so beloved of kid PRs talking about some “legacy” performer they, and they assume their gen, has never heard of.) Grusin recorded his first album, Subways Are For Sleeping, a trio with Milt Hinton and Don Lamond, in 1961, and Ritenour’s debut album was First Course, in 1976. In the early 80s he and Larry Carlton were the twin names of modern West Coast guitar.
The longevity of Rit and Gru (officially sanctioned nicknames) certainly adds to their USP, and there were plenty of age jokes through the set (“Don’s 90 but he doesn’t recommend it” and “When Lee was a teenager, about seven years ago…”), but the music was of a quality that recommended itself, not least thanks to some stupendous moments from members of the young band that suddenly raised the bar, if not the roof. They reminded how far forward the genre has moved and how commonplace super technique has become.
“We’re gonna start slow, if that’s ok,” said Rit. And so they did, with Pearl, a delicate Latin piano and guitar duo from 2015’s Twist Of Rit, followed by a gentle waltz after bassist Munir Ferreira Abou El Hossn and drummer Wesley Ritenour (Lee’s son) had come out to join them.
The slow tempos and pretty melodies might have lulled us into believing the accusations that the duo play lobby music, but the heat rose with the next tune, The Village, something louder and funkier with some refreshing tempo shifts. Ritenour soloed on form but the intensity leapt a good few notches in a short break from bassist Hossn. Aided by a strikingly clear and penetrating sound (a contrast to Rit’s sound-effected guitar) and a virtuoso technique that reminded of the deceptively economic method of Gary Willis, he packed an encyclopaedia of metric and harmonic variation into very few seconds. He only had three or four relatively short solos in the 75-minute set, but his productivity would be the perfect model for growth chancellor Rachel Reeves. Grégoire Maret, stage-front but sphinx-like, should have had more space too, his chromatic harmonica breaks a beautiful combination of Stevie Wonder like soul and tantalising bebop.
Then came Jobim’s Stone Flower, almost compulsory in a Ritenour Latin set. Rit, hitting the octaves, waxed Wes-ish. Montgomery was a primary influence and Ritenour recorded a Wes tribute (Wes Bound, 1993) that was panned – despite being a strong jazz record – as too smooth by the lazy, reflex critics who must have forgotten that Wes himself was prey to proto smooth-jazzer Creed Taylor. Rit says “That’s a tune I did several times, but we forget. Dave definitely forgets everything and I forget most things, so between us we’re hopeless. Wes (pointing to his drummer son) remembers it all but we say let’s do it anyway.”
After a low-key jazz waltz called For The Palms, Ritenour summoned singer Tatiana Parra, and the classic and the Brazilian convened in a unnamed piece with some lovely wordless vocals in the Flora Purim style, some more breathtaking bass fills and a rich harmonica break over an intensely funky backdrop. Hossn and Maret (the latter oddly unsung, perhaps overlooked, in Rit’s announcements) should have had double the solo length here.
In any event, Hossn then got more of the limelight as a singer, standing in for Ivan Lins, who had only been able to make the first three gigs of a European tour that began in the suitably balmy, Latin location of Córdoba, 10 July. Hossn seems to be the band’s eccentric, sporting tonight what appears to be a multi-coloured dress – in contrast to the Sears & Roebeck style shirts and slacks of the principals. Above his bear-like frame was a heavy beard and double top knots. Rit says that although he’s Brazilian by birth he speaks seven languages. The last string to his bow emerged when he piped up earlier in the tour that he could take Lins’ place on vocals. He did so here, with Parra, on Vitoriosa, a slow rock ballad from Brasil. Perhaps not to be outdone in the exotica stakes, Rit explains it’s spelled with an “s” “because we’re hip”.
Ritenour has made all the announcements so far, to the point that one wonders if Dave Grusin is functioning on muscle memory or his parts played by an algorithm. But no, suddenly Dave has the mic, saying “This is a great experience, to tour with a bunch of kids like this. I did music for a film years ago called The Milagro Beanfield War and I’m gonna play a couple of little pieces from that.” Hollywood has long borrowed from French impressionism and the first piece sounded as if Debussy’s preludes Minstrels and La Serenade Interrompue had bled into each other at the mixing desk. Grusin’s clean, articulate playing left no doubt that his nonagenarian technique was perfectly intact.
Parra then sang Milton Nascimiento’s Cravo E Canela. Maret accurately bounced back whatever Rit played as they traded fours and there were more dramatic diversions from Hossn. The ultimate piece, the Ritenour standard Harlequin, turned out to be the penultimate as Ritenour said “They told us 75 minutes, but you’d like another, right?” And so the yacht circled the bay once more, ending an evening of intricately constructed, sunny and often spectacular music.
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Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin at Ronnie Scott’s, London, featuring Ritenour (g); Grusin (p, elp); Munir Ferreira Abou El Hossn (b); Wesley Ritenour (d); Grégoire Maret (hca); Tatiana Parra (v). Ronnie Scott’s, London, second house, 23 July 2024.
