Refined Ritenour Focuses On Substance

Guitarist Lee Ritenour has always carried the right credentials. Thursday, playing at the Ash Grove on the Santa Monica pier, he lived up to them.

The 45-year-old, Hollywood-born Ritenour studied his craft early-on with the likes of Joe Pass and Howard Roberts, and has a well-publicized affinity for Wes Montgomery. As a studio heavy he’s played for everyone from composer Oliver Nelson and saxophonist Sonny Rollins to Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand.

But Ritenour, beginning with his breakthrough “Captain Fingers” release of 1977, has also been heavily criticized in the jazz community for putting his credentials aside to pursue fusion and instrumental pop. His reputation as purveyor of soft, beat-minded jazz has persisted in recent years despite the release of more ambitious albums, including 1992’s Montgomery-inspired “Wes Bound.”

Ritenour’s Thursday appearance, the first of three nights being recorded for a live album, demonstrated how wrong it is to dismiss him as another easy-listening guitarist. The two-hour program, spanning some 20 years of original material as well as classics from Nelson and Montgomery, presented a more refined side of Ritenour, one more focused on musical attractions rather than commercial appeal.

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Though a number of his original songs moved to accessible beats (“Night Rhythms,” “San Juan Sunset”), they contained melodic and harmonic elements, as well as alert, inventive interplay from the sextet’s members, that made them more than simple exercises. The tunes propelled by more involved rhythms (“Wes Bound,” “Stolen Moments,” a new, as-yet-untitled acoustic piece), were even more deeply layered with attractions.

The bass-drums anchor of Melvin Davis and Sonny Emory proved sturdy as it varied from hard backbeat to cool swing rhythms. Davis proved particularly adaptable, walking agilely on electric bass, stoutly on upright, then pounding out thumb-driven funk.

With saxophonist Bill Evans serving as improvisational foil and dual keyboardists Barnaby Finch on synthesizers and Alan Pasqua, soloing smartly on both acoustic piano and organ, Ritenour played with confidence and lyrical spice, emphasizing content over flash. Only at rare moments did he utilize clean-cut, lickety-split runs and those fell naturally into the flow of his play.

The Ash Grove, better known as a home for blues, roots and world-beat music, served the music well. Its location above the breakers gives it a traditional West Coast feel in the beach-side tradition of the historic days of the Lighthouse and Concerts by the Sea. It boasts good sight lines, intimacy and clean, well-amplified sound. For the Ritenour show, a full house filled the small tables crowded in front of the bandstand and the loft built over the back of the room.

* Lee Ritenour plays the Ash Grove, 250 Santa Monica Pier; tonight at 8:30. $20. (310) 656-8501.