LEE RITENOUR - Wes Bound (Sealed) (LP)

Intoxicating is a word Lee Ritenour keeps repeating when he discusses the music of Wes Montgomery. Intoxicating to play, and intoxicating to hear? And that's precisely the goal Ritenour had in mind when he put together this tribute to one of the finest guitarists in the history of jazz. And it works. The combination of Ritenour's contemporary jazz guitar and Montgomery's timeless style blends together with the zing, the zest, and the atmospheric ambience of a scotch and water in a New York jazz club. Ritenour has revealed Montgomery's influence on his playing in bits and pieces over the years, but never with such sheer exuberance and improvisational imagination as in this colorful collection of Montgomery classics and Ritenour originals.