When Lee Ritenour was called to play with Pink Floyd

In 1979, when i Pink Floyd they were working on the album “The Wall”they decided to call the American jazz guitarist into the recording studio Lee Ritenourwho he has worked with in his career Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollinsbut also with Steely Dan And Sparks.

In 2020, during the Covid period, the now 72-year-old Ritenour told the Prog magazine about his involvement in “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” and how that experience increased his respect for the English band. “The ’70s were a great time in Los Angeles. I was into the prog rock stuff, then I got a call from Bob Ezrin who said, ‘Would you like to record with Pink Floyd?’ he didn’t tell me it was for “The Wall”. I said, ‘That would be wonderful, but does David Gilmour really need me?’ Bob said they wanted a little more rhythm and color and maybe I could play with David a little. I ended up playing rhythm on “One Of My Turns” and acoustic guitar on “Comfortably Numb.” them with this huge crate full of guitars and I got ready thinking, ‘I’m going to impress David Gilmour.’ I went into the producer’s room and David had about 21 guitars lined up in the room, every big guitar you can imagine.

Lee Ritenour
he continues his story: “They were very cool, they were working on the guitar solo of “Another Brick In The Wall”. I remember Bob and David and the engineer saying, ‘Look at this.’ It sounded really good, almost like what you hear on the record. They said they weren’t sure how to get out of the solo – would you like to try some riffs at the end? It was just to see what I would do, even if they wouldn’t use it. They just wanted to freshen their ears in an attempt to get someone else’s point of view for inspiration. I set up my sound and tried to get a little closer to what David was doing, which wasn’t too far from my sound at the time. When the record came out, it was 100 percent Gilmour with his ideas. But maybe there are a couple of riffs that I gave them a little inspiration for!”

The musician closes his recollection by explaining: “Among all my jazz and pop stuff, Pink Floyd stands out as something unusual; but that record still holds up very well. At that time, Pink Floyd, together with Genesis, especially Phil Collins, who is really versatile, were the best for me. I’m a great friend of Daryl Stuermer, who played guitar with Genesis and recently went to rehearse with them in London. He had to take nine Covid tests, but he was healthier than ever!”