First Course

First Course was made when Ritenour was considered the best session musician in Los Angeles next to guitarist Larry Carlton.[2] He recorded the album with peers from Dante's and the Baked Potato club in Studio City, California. AllMusic called the album an "artifact of the early L.A. jazz/funk sound".[3]

Ritenour worried about the album. "I was still thinking as a studio musician, and I was very worried about having my own identity on the guitar, because up until that time my job as a studio musician had been to be a 'chameleon'...it wasn't until several years later that I felt more comfortable with who I was stylistically."[2]

Financial problems plagued the album because the "sound perplexed studio executives," who were looking for the next Bitches Brew or Return to Forever.[4] This was melodic rhythm and blues-based jazz that fell just outside the boundaries of "Fusion" and didn't find a home until newly formatted radio stations began to popularize two emerging genres in the mid to late 80's - The genre broadly known as Smooth Jazz, and also "New Age" music, between which there was considerable overlap.

• Lee Ritenour – electric guitars (1-4, 6, 8), classical guitars (5, 9)
• Dave Grusin – Fender Rhodes (1-3, 6-9), synthesizers (2, 3, 6, 7, 9), organ (4), horn arrangements (4, 6), clavinet (8), acoustic piano (9)
• Michael Omartian – clavinet (1), horn arrangements (1)
• Larry Nash – clavinet (2, 4, 6), acoustic piano (4)
• Ian Underwood – synthesizer programming (2, 3, 6, 7, 9)
• Jerry Peters – clavinet (3), acoustic piano (7), synthesizers (7)
• Patrice Rushen – clavinet (8)
• Bill Dickinson – bass (1, 8)
• Louis Johnson – bass (2, 6)
• Chuck Rainey – bass (3, 4, 7)
• Harvey Mason – drums (1-3, 6-8), percussion (2, 3)
• Ed Greene – drums (4)
• Jerry Steinholtz – percussion (3, 7, 8), congas (7, 8)
• Tom Scott – tenor saxophone (1, 2, 4, 6, 8), tenor sax solo (1, 8), horn arrangements (2, 8), lyricon (solo: 4, 8)
• Ernie Watts – tenor saxophone (1)
• Jerome Richardson – baritone saxophone (1, 2, 4, 6, 8)
• Frank Rosolino – trombone (1, 2, 4, 6, 8)
• Chuck Findley – trumpet (1, 2, 4, 6, 8)

• Entry at Discogs