Gibson Custom Lee Ritenour L-5

"Lee Ritenour is one of the few musicians who can play across genres and still impress us with polished technique and a warm sound. I still have the album that he made with Renee Fleming and Dave Grusin on my turntable." — Ramsey Lewis, date unknown. Few musicians – let alone a guitarist – can lay claim to being as prolific in multiple musical genres as Lee Ritenour. Whether its rock and roll, rhythm and blues, easy listening or – his first love – jazz, Ritenour has ably established himself as one of the most creative and in-demand guitar players of his time. Since the age of 16, when he was summoned to his first recording session with The Mama’s and the Papa’s, Ritenour – or Captain Fingers, as he is known – has participated in over 3,000 sessions, resulting in an enormous catalog of music that includes some of the most celebrated bands and musicians of our time. Ritenour has played with likes of Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Larry Carlton and Pink Floyd, among others. Playing on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Ritenour contributed rhythm guitar on “What Do You Want,” and played acoustic guitar on what many consider to be the band’s most famous song, “Comfortably Numb.” Along the way, Ritenour has garnered 17 Grammy nominations, winning one in 1986 for the album Harlequin, which he recorded with Dave Grusin. He’s also stayed true to his choice of guitars, which have all been almost exclusively Gibson archtops, the first two of which were an ES-335 and an L-5 he acquired in the early 1970s.