Lee Ritenour & Friends

Known widely as “Captain Fingers,” a moniker he earned for his remarkable dexterity and musicianship, GRAMMY-winning guitar hero Lee Ritenour began his sparking career as a solo artist and bandleader at the height of the jazz fusion era of the mid-1970s. 

Still a teenage phenom when performing with the likes of Tony Bennett and Lena Horne, Ritenour made waves on the L.A. studio circuit and released his debut First Course in 1976, the first of 35 albums for the Elektra, GRP, and Concord labels including the career highlights Captain Fingers (1977), Rit (1981), Harlequin (1985), Festival (1988), and 6 String Theory (2010).

Ritenour was a founding member of the fusion supergroup Fourplay and has contributed to the music of Patti Austin, Pink Floyd, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Joe Henderson, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, and Dizzy Gillespie, among dozens of others.  

Brasil was recorded in Sao Paolo and steeps Ritenour and Dave Grusin in the country's tropical grooves with a lineup of master Brazilian musicians and continues the guitarist’s fascination with and dedication to the music of Brazil. Allmusic.com calls the album “one the more compelling intersections of music and culture thus far in the 21st century.”