Lyle Ritz

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Lyle J. Ritz (born January 10, 1930 in Cleveland , Ohio - † March 3, 2017 ) was an American jazz and studio musician ( double bass , ukulele ). He is considered the "father of the jazz ukulele".

Career

Ritz, who participated in over 5,000 recording sessions, started his career in a music business in Los Angeles. There he recognized the possibilities of the ukulele in the 1950s. After completing his military service in the Korean War , where he played tuba in an army band, Barney Kessel discovered him , who at the time was working for Verve Records on the west coast; Kessel offered Ritz a record deal. In 1957 he put (in a trio with Red Mitchell and Gene Estes ) the LP How About Uke? before, followed by 50th State Jazz (1959, also with Joe Mondragon , Paul Horn , Don Shelton ); the two albums were particularly successful in Hawaii. In the following years he worked as a bassist for the studio formation Wrecking Crew , which played in countless record sessions in the Los Angeles area until the early 1980s, such as Herb Alpert's hit Taste of Honey , The Righteous Brothers ' You've Lost That Lovin 'Feelin' and the Beach Boys song Good Vibrations , as well as recordings by Sonny & Cher , The Monkees , Dean Martin and Linda Ronstadt . Ritz has also worked on film scores such as This Land is My Land (1976), Face the Music (1979) and No Drums, No Bugles (1972). In his later years he returned to the ukulele, recorded several albums and lived in Portland, Oregon . According to the jazz discographer Tom Lord , he was involved in 44 recording sessions from 1957 to 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lyle Ritz, Wrecking Crew bassist, Dies at 87 . Obituary from Best Band Classics, March 5, 2017, accessed March 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz Discography (online)
personal data
SURNAME Ritz, Lyle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritz, Lyle J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz and studio musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2017