First Course

First Course is the debut album by jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. The album was released on LP by Epic Records in 1976 and on CD by Columbia Records in 1990.

A "first course" in cookery refers to an entrée.
First Course
Studio album by
Lee Ritenour
Released1976
RecordedOctober 3 – 15, 1975
StudioThe Sound Labs, Hollywood, California
GenreCrossover jazz, smooth jazz
Length41:15
LabelEpic (1976), Columbia (1990)
ProducerSkip Drinkwater
Lee Ritenour chronology
First Course
(1976)		 Gentle Thoughts
(1977)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Reception

First Course was made when Ritenour was considered the best session musician in Los Angeles next to guitarist Larry Carlton.[2] He recorded the album with peers from Dante's and the Baked Potato club in Studio City, California. AllMusic called the album an "artifact of the early L.A. jazz/funk sound".[3]

Ritenour worried about the album. "I was still thinking as a studio musician, and I was very worried about having my own identity on the guitar, because up until that time my job as a studio musician had been to be a 'chameleon'...it wasn't until several years later that I felt more comfortable with who I was stylistically."[2]

Financial problems plagued the album because the "sound perplexed studio executives" were looking for the next Bitches Brew or Return to Forever.[4] This was melodic rhythm and blues-based jazz that didn't find a home until new wave radio stations became mainstream over a decade later.[4]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Lee Ritenour except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That"6:16
2."Sweet Syncopation"4:47
3."Theme from Three Days of the Condor" (Dave Grusin)4:08
4."Fatback"4:18
5."Memories Past"1:51
6."Caterpillar" (Grusin)4:21
7."Canticle for the Universe" (Jerry Peters)6:12
8."Wild Rice"5:32
9."Ohla Maria (Amparo)" (Antônio Carlos Jobim)3:50

Personnel
gollark: `rand() * 0xFFFF`?
gollark: Hmm, I should set it to *not* use zero but instead, say, 4?
gollark: This may be one of the highest-performance `malloc` implementations available.
gollark: ```c#include <stdint.h>#include <stddef.h>static uintptr_t MEMPOS = 1;void* malloc(size_t size) { uintptr_t bees = MEMPOS; MEMPOS += size; return (void*)bees;}void free(void* ptr) { *(char**)ptr = "hello please do not use this address";}```
gollark: I prefer my malloc implementation.

References
  1. Ginell, Richard S. "First Course". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  2. Willie G. Moseley. "...Rit on the Right". Archived from the original on 2006-12-31. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  3. Ginell, Richard. "First Course – Lee Ritenour". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  4. "Review of The Best of Lee Ritenour". October 23, 2003. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
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