After more than four decades of recording, Dan Siegel is finding value in imperfection. His nine-song album Resolution, due September 11, 2026, captures the pianist and composer easing up on his tendency to polish every detail. “I have a tendency to overwork things, to iron out all the little kinks,” he says. “That kind of leaves it without humanity – a little too perfect and polished. This is a little bit raw and rough around the edges in places.”

Siegel initially envisioned a rootsier, Americana-leaning trio recording, bringing together bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Jay Bellerose. Bellerose’s approach helped shape the music from the start. “His style is really subtle, he came up with different grooves,” Siegel says. Most of the album’s piano performances survived from those original trio sessions, even when Siegel considered replacing them. “I couldn’t really recapture the vibe,” he says of his attempts on a few tracks. “I just said, forget it. Leave it.”

The trio is enhanced by guests including percussionist Lenny Castro, vibraphonist Craig Fundyga, guitarist Dean Parks and longtime collaborator Rogerio Jardim. “If you hire people that are going to bring something to the party,” he says, “you let them have a good time.”

Resolution is dedicated to Siegel’s mother, Elizabeth, who died in 2026 in her late nineties. She insisted he take piano lessons, encouraged his early composing and remained interested in his music into her nineties. “She played a big part in my creative life,” he says. “She was a lot of fun.” Her encouragement helped launch a lifetime of writing music, and Siegel’s approach today reflects the confidence that comes with experience: “I’ve gotten to a point where I just let the music be what it’s going to be. You don’t want to get in the way. Let it speak.”

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When “Lujon (Slow Hot Wind)” randomly came up on my playlist yesterday, I knew I had to share it. It was so timely. The track features the great Pat Metheny, a fellow Midwesterner born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. And that slow hot wind is definitely something we’ve been dealing with around here.

So enjoy this track from The Henry Mancini 100th Sessions: Henry Has Company, the 2024 tribute celebrating the centennial of Mancini’s birth. The album brought together an impressive collection of contemporary jazz stars and musical legends, including Herbie Hancock, Arturo Sandoval, Quincy Jones, John Williams, Snarky Puppy, Take 6, and Stevie Wonder. It was an extraordinary all-star celebration of Mancini’s music.

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Lee Ritenour will release Live at Ronnie Scott’s on October 23, 2026, through The Players Club/Artone Label Group. Recorded during an eight-show March residency at London’s legendary jazz club, the album captures the Grammy-winning guitarist revisiting five decades of music with a young, road-tested band.

The first single is a newly arranged live version of “Is It You?,” Ritenour’s signature vocal hit from the 1981 album Rit. The original recording, featuring lead vocalist Eric Tagg, reached No. 15 on both Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts and No. 27 on the soul chart. Ritenour co-wrote the song with Tagg and Bill Champlin.

More than four decades later, Ritenour has not attempted to reproduce that studio recording note for note. He says the song has “definitely evolved” and acknowledges that it was never particularly easy for a band to perform live.

The new version takes on a gentler, slower groove, with Brazilian musicians Munir Hossn and Tatiana Parra sharing the vocals. Hossn also plays bass in Ritenour’s band.

Ritenour recalls sending the song to Hossn about a year before the recording. The younger musician did not know the early-’80s hit well and had one surprising reservation: although he had sung in Portuguese, French and Spanish, he had never performed a song in English.

Ritenour decided that neither singer needed to disguise their natural phrasing or accents. That decision helped give the familiar song its new personality, and he says he is “very happy” with the result.

A Band Built for the Moment

Along with Hossn and Parra, the musicians joining Ritenour on Live at Ronnie Scott’s are keyboardist Giorgi Mikadze, harmonica virtuoso Grégoire Maret, and drummer Wes Ritenour, Lee’s son.

According to Ritenour, the group’s recent history together was essential to the recording. Rather than assembling solely for the album, the musicians arrived in London after several years of consistent playing. That familiarity allowed the band to reshape well-known material instead of simply reproducing the recorded arrangements.

The residency consisted of eight performances with changing set lists—a suitably expansive approach for an artist whose catalog moves freely among jazz fusion, Brazilian music, pop, funk and straight-ahead jazz.

The resulting album includes staples such as “Captain Fingers,” “A Little Bumpin’,” “L.A. By Bike” and “The Village,” alongside Brazilian favorites including “Cravo e Canela,” “Meu Samba Torto” and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Stone Flower.”

Back at Ronnie’s

Ritenour’s connection with Ronnie Scott’s reaches back to the 1970s, and his album announcement makes clear that the venue was more than a picturesque location for the recording.

“Ronnie Scott’s has always been a special place for me. The history, the room and the audience create an energy unlike anywhere else.”

That energy met a band prepared to take advantage of it.

“This band came into the shows ready to play, and I’m very proud of what we captured together,” Ritenour said.

The club’s musical openness also mirrors Ritenour’s own career.

“Every type of music has been played at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club since 1959,” Ritenour said. “That’s exactly what I love to do too.”

Since opening, Ronnie Scott’s has hosted defining jazz figures including Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis and Nina Simone while also welcoming rock, blues, soul and crossover artists. Ritenour’s own résumé has followed a similarly unrestricted path.

He emerged as an elite Los Angeles session guitarist in the late 1960s and went on to record with artists ranging from Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and B.B. King to Steely Dan, Quincy Jones and Pink Floyd. As a solo artist, he became one of jazz fusion’s most recognizable guitar voices, explored Brazilian music extensively and later co-founded Fourplay with Bob James, Nathan East and Harvey Mason.

On Live at Ronnie Scott’s, all of those musical identities meet in the same room. It’s not a retrospective museum piece, but as living material open to reinterpretation.

Live at Ronnie Scott’s Track List

1. Cravo e Canela
2. L.A. By Bike
3. For the Palms
4. Captain Fingers
5. A Little Bumpin’
6. Meu Samba Torto
7. Lay It Down
8. Is It You?
9. Waltz for Carmen
10. Stone Flower
11. Pearl
12. The Village

Live at Ronnie Scott’s will be available October 23 on CD, vinyl and digital platforms. “Is It You? (Live at Ronnie Scott’s)” is available now as the album’s first single.

More information: View the official album announcement and preorder information.

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