You never know what a Ritenour album will bring: is it AOR/West Coast pop? Brazilian? Reggae lite? Smooth jazz? This 1990 effort is more of a straight-ahead "return to your roots" jazz album for Ritenour and he brings in Ernie Watts and Harvey Mason to help out. Rit is in fine form in this mix of originals and arrangements of standards. I love his tone here - he's trying to sound like Wes Montgomery and that's okay by me. Sadly, the album was released and quickly forgotten, being overshadowed by his next release, Wes Bound, in 1993; I found this Stolen Moments CD in a clearance bin.
On a marginally related note, this '90 release got me to thinking about how artists at the time were dealing with the new, extended time capacity of the CD. Many of pop artists stuck with the 40 minute/8-10 songs album length that vinyl used, while classical CDs were jamming 75+ minutes of music on each disc. Eventually, things seemed to settle in the 50 minute range for pop and jazz releases. For what it's worth, this 8 track CD clocks in at 46:37. Then came the bonus tracks, demos, and hidden tracks, which is a discussion for another time.
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
- Billboard Jazz: #3
Tracks: The Ritenour originals - Uptown, 24th Street Blues, Waltz For Carmen, and St. Bart's - are all quite enjoyable. Also of note is Haunted Heart, a beautiful take on a 1940's tune.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None
Previously revisited for the blog:
Rit's House (2002)
Larry & Lee (1995)
Festival (1988)
Harlequin (1985)
On The Line (1983)
"Rit" (1981)
Rio (1979)
No comments:
Post a Comment