When Lee Ritenour takes the stage, all bets are off. For almost 60 years, the Grammy-winning LA guitarist has chased his muse through a kaleidoscope of genres, conjured alchemy alongside the scene’s greatest players, shed his creative skin whenever it got too comfortable, and walked the high-wire each night as the crowd holds its breath.


So when it came to catching the sparks on his latest live album, the 74-year-old naturally turned to the fabled London club that shares his rebel ethos. “I've had the chance to play every kind of music with every kind of artist,” reflects Ritenour, “and that's the way Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is set up too. Obviously, since 1959, it’s seen the history of jazz, from Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis and Nina Simone, to Jeff Beck and Jamie Cullum. But also rock, soul, blues, you name it – it’s all been through there.”


Performing a total of eight shows at the iconic Soho club in March 2026 – with a fresh setlist each time – was the only way this prolific artist could hope to represent every side of his career. Across his 50-strong back catalogue, Ritenour has shapeshifted from ’70s fusion hotshot to ’80s chart-crossover star, from the honorary ambassador for Brazilian jazz to one quarter of ’90s supergroup Fourplay – and beyond.


Released October 23 on Artone Label Group/The Players Club, Live At Ronnie Scott’s hits all the marks this sell-out crowd demands, including such millions-streamed hits as Is It You and A Little Bumpin’. Yet Ritenour refused to go through the motions. Every song feels fresh and alive, thanks to the bandleader’s bold arrangements and the rip-it-up energy of a young band featuring Giorgi Mikadze (keys), Munir Hossn (vocals/bass), Grégoire Maret (harmonica), Tatiana Parra (vocals) and Ritenour’s son, Wes, driving the shows from his drum stool.


“We weren’t trying to capture the way I used to do any of these songs,” explains the veteran guitarist. “The material came out respectful and we included all the right elements, but this record is my younger crew of musicians just playing their asses off.”


It doesn’t feel so long ago that Ritenour himself was the young gun. Born in Los Angeles on 11 January 1952, he was playing guitar by eight, “serious” by 12, and soaking up everything that Sixties flashpoint had to offer. “My dad used to take me to hear Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass and Jim Hall,” he reflects. “But there were also the rock guys coming through LA back then, like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
“I got turned on to Segovia, B.B. King, Chet Atkins, the psychedelic stuff coming out of San Francisco, the great flamenco guitarists like Pepe Romero. I was just in love with the guitar. If it was being played well, it didn’t matter who was playing it.”


After his father called up jazz giant Barney Kessel to ask for a guitar lesson – “Everybody’s number was in the phonebook back then” – Ritenour Jr was recommended to the great Duke Miller for formal training. Meanwhile, the kid was learning his craft at the sharp end, taking the car to the fabled Lighthouse club after school most afternoons to watch the bands soundcheck.


But Ritenour grew up fast and from the late-’60s he was a first-call sessioner for giants like Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, B.B. King and Tony Bennett. “I’d get called for Steely Dan or Quincy Jones would ask me to come by the studio at midnight,” he says of those gun-for-hire years. “Somebody once added up that I did 3,000 recordings for artists, movies and TV shows. It was incredible reaching the top tier as a studio musician. But I always had a desire to write my own songs and records – to be an artist.”