 If
you are a long time Lee Ritenour fan, the first notes of
the opening track, the title cut of this CD, will perk your
ears up. It's a Rit-riff that sounds like it came straight
from one of those classic GRP CDs he and Dave Grusin did
in the late 80s. It is inspired, not imitative. The launching
point for innovative and original set of songs that are loaded
with trademark Ritenour arrangements and solos. Inspired
by musicians he discovered during a tour in South Africa
he has added another layer of influences to a scope that
was already wide. What is impressive is the way he has put
elements of all of them on Smoke'n'Mirrors and
created a stylistically eclectic collection of songs that
flow together seamlessly. Over the course of these 14 songs
he delves into acoustic African rhythms, Brazilian ballads, traditional
jazz, fusion, reinvented pop hits, blues-rock, and pre-smooth
contemporary jazz. The effect is never jarring; it just lures
you in and reminds you of how much has been missing since
the trend toward playing it safe took hold.
Ritenour said that the title refers to the elements of magic
and serendipity that were present during the process of creating
and recording the album. It's hard not to intuitively "get" this
spirit of joyous exploration or the chemistry between the
people playing the music. The chemistry comes from the group
of musicians he has gathered. Patrice Rushen, Dave Grusin,
Melvin Davis, Vinnie Colaiuta, Abraham Laboriel, and Alex
Acuna go back to his earliest solo albums. They are joined
by Sheila E., Brian Bromberg, Paulinho Da Costa, John
Pattituci, and Oscar Seaton and Ritenour's son Wesley, who
makes his debut on drums. There is also an international
presence: Richard Bona, the brilliant African bassist/vocalist
who was featured in Pat Metheny's "Speaking of Now" tour,
Daniel Jobim - vocalist, keyboard player and grandson of
Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Indian tabla player Satma Ramgotra.
The serendipity started when he turned on the TV late at
night while he was in South Africa and saw music videos of
Zamajobe, a popular new vocalist there who mixes pop and
R&B with more traditional African styles. He was able
to record several tracks with her and her guitarist Erik
Pilani Paliani including the traditional call-and-response "Memeza." Ritenour
extended the song, adding an additional guitar part over
the sparse vocal/guitar/percussion driven arrangement.
Although there are no other songs exactly like it on the
CD, "Memeza" may be its thematic heart. There
are traces of these rhythms and textures throughout, most
notably on "Capetown" and "Water's Edge," which
have Ritenour's acoustic guitar backed with only bass, drums
and percussion. "Township" starts in a similar
mode but as electric guitar and sax are layered in it starts
to sound like a continuation of those wonderful world-flavored
songs on his late 80s CDs. The thread to that era is most
conspicuous in his version of Dave Grusin's "Southwest
Passage," which originally appeared on Grusin's Migration
CD in 1987. There is beauty in complexity here. Grusin's
eloquent, lyrical piano and Ritenour’s acoustic guitar
wrapped around a song full of rapid-fire tempo changes and
textural shifts. Serendipity occurred again with "Blue
Days." He was looking for a contemporary Brazilian song
to fill out the album and ran into Daniel Jobim at a restaurant.
Jobim sent him this lovely, haunting ballad. Jobim arranged
this version, a duet with Brazilian vocalist Joyce. They
both sing with such emotion and clarity that you don't need
to know the language to understand the song.
Into this melting pot also go four covers: two jazz songs
that are not very well known and two pop/R&B songs that
are extremely familiar. Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo's "Spellbinder" is
close to straight-ahead but Brian Bromberg’s driving
bass and the tablas and bongos under Ritenour’s sneaky
lead shape-shift it into a different realm. Freddie Hubbard's "Povo" gets
similar treatment. Patrice Rushen's Fender Rhodes solo will
stop you in your tracks. She just goes off! The chordings
are distinctly mid-70s fusion but the arrangement isn't retro
at all. Ritenour’s gift for creating jazzed up arrangements
of popular songs was showcased on the "Twist Of" projects,
but his reinvention of "Lovely Day" and "Forget
Me Not's" takes it one step further. He has kept the
heart of these songs but turned them into something so fresh
that even someone who has heard them almost daily for 20
years will hear them from a new perspective. Zamajobe's gift
is that she is such a natural, unaffected singer. She doesn't
over sing but she doesn't go into the icy monotone that the
chill trend has made so fashionable. Rushen and Ritenour
even found a little melody line that is as catchy as the
double clap in the original version of "Forget Me Nots." Both
these songs wrap up with Zamajobe's African scatting/vocalese.
Ritenour described it as LA meets Brazil meets South Africa.
It's quite a fun trip! Then Ritenour goes where everyone
else seems to be scared to tread - he rocks. "Motherland" is
a percussive play-it-loud funk-tinged rocker that just keeps
on building in intensity. "4 1/2 Storms" starts
where "Motherland" leaves off with Bona and Ritenour
playing fast and furious then Bona tears into a bass'n'scat
passage. It fades into a bass and conga breakdown that sheds
the density but keeps the momentum and sets you up to go
straight into the title track on replay and discover even
more facets of the musicianship on this CD.
If you go back and listen to Color Rit, Festival,
or Grusin's Migration they sound
just as contemporary now as they did then. Smoke'n'Mirrors is
equally timeless. It's a stunning musical journey that explores
a lot of territory but never goes off track.
- Shannon West
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