Strings Attached (Finally) : Guitarists Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton Find Some Time to Play Together

They both grew up in Southern California’s South Bay. As teen-agers,they hung out at the same music store, Mr. B’s For Music on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Later, they took turns headlining at the same club, the Baked Potato in North Hollywood. And as top-call studio guitarists, they performed on some of the same albums (for Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand and others), though on separate tracks. It wasn’t until Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton made “Larry & Lee,” their recent album for GRP, that the two contemporary jazz stars actually sat down and made music together.

Each was both so busy with the hustle-and-bustle of his own career that theirs was one of those “hi-bye” relationships. “We’d run into each other at industry shows,” recalls Ritenour. Furthermore, neither seriously had considered a project with any other guitarist. “Collaborating had not crossed my mind,” says Carlton.

But each had long respected the other’s work, and each had a strong base of fans who ardently wanted the guitarists to team up. “We kept getting letters, [even] from Japan,” Carlton notes, “saying, ‘You two are my favorite guitar players. When are we going to hear Lee and Larry together?’ ”

Last year, they felt the time was right, particularly when they found themselves signed to the same label. Their joint album was released in May and since then Carlton, 47, and Ritenour, 42, have been touring. They play tonight--backed by Rick Jackson on keyboards, Melvin Davis on bass and Land Richards on drums--at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

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Carlton and Ritenour are among the most distinctive stylists playing today, blending all manner of modern music from jazz and pop to blues and rock. But while they both roam the same artistic turf, their musical gaits are decidedly different.

Ritenour has a lighter, more buoyant sound, a free-flowing, jazz-tinged improvisational manner, while Carlton has an edgy bite to his tone and consistently flavors his work with blues-drenched, emotional expression.

Their individuality became clear in the recording studio where Ritenour’s six originals included horn parts while Carlton went for a sparer sound on his five numbers, only sometimes adding an additional keyboard.

“Lee is a strong arranger and composer who makes records that really sound good,” Carlton said during a recent interview. “He obviously does a lot of homework before he goes into the studio, and he knows exactly what he wants to hear. I like to have enough information so that a track will sound like me, but I like to leave much more space open for good stuff to happen that I might not have thought of.”

“I appreciated his spontaneity,” Ritenour said in a separate conversation.

Their concert set includes half a dozen tunes from “Larry & Lee,” a few others drawn from both guitarists’ repertoires, and a classic or two such as Wes Montgomery’s “Four on Six.” Ritenour and Carlton play individually as well as together. “Larry might do a blues and then one of his older tunes,” said Ritenour. “Lee might do one of his jazz tunes or a number on the gut-strung classical guitar,” said Carlton. “It’s beautiful the way he can do that.”

Both were happy to point out that their shows are not cutting contests, with each player trying to outdo the other. “There’s none of that competition jive going on. It’s all about the music, and that’s great,” said Ritenour. “As we play, the songs have evolved, and our level of play and dialogue is much deeper than when we did the album.”

* Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour play tonight at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 7 and 9:30. $25. (714) 496-8930.