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MusicRadar
MusicRadar
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Jonathan Horsley

“The crazy thing about the guitar is that people play it upside down. Hendrix played it over his neck. You can play it anyway that you can. That’s what makes it so beautiful”: Lee Ritenour on musical identity and the secrets to improvisation

Lee Ritenour.

Lee Ritenour is a miraculous guitar player. His discography bears testimony to this. Back in the day as a first-call session player, Ritenour played on The Wall with Pink Floyd. He played with Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, the Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder, BB King… The list goes on.

And along the way, miracles would happen – would be part of the day job – and the tracks he played on would become embedded in popular culture. On some occasions, Ritenour would even save the day, like that one time in 1980 when he answered a late-night call from Quincy Jones, raced into the studio and saved George Benson’s Give Me The Night guitar solo.

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