(VIDEO) Arts Center Concert Series Preview: Lee Ritenour Quartet

Lee Ritenour and his four-piece jazz band will play the on Nov. 5.

Critically acclaimed as one of the best contemporary jazz guitarists, including a German Grammy for Best International Instrumentalist, Ritenour plays a variety of styles.

“I list [my style] under the overall category of jazz,” Ritenour said. “Within that, we dance between Brazilian rhythms and funk rhythms and occasionally even rock.”

Because he has such an extensive jazz history and has recorded more than 40 albums, Ritenour likes to draw music from multiple decades at his concerts.

“I do draw on just about all the decades that I’ve been active in starting—in the '70s from things like 'Rio Funk, through some of the '80s stuff, and then into the '90s with more jazzy, Brazilian stuff, all the way up through 2010 when we came out with the 6 String Theory album,”  he said.

A Guitar International review of 6 String Theory said its genre is unclassifiable and hard to nail down to one style—but added that it includes jazz, rock, blues, acoustic, country and classical.

Ritenour’s lengthy career gives him the latitude to try these various genres. He recorded his first album in 1976 and has been nominated for 20 Grammys since then. He has performed with the likes of B.B. King, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand, according to his website.

But despite having performed with all of those big names, Ritenour still simply points to his longevity as his greatest musical accomplishment.

The Lee Ritenour Quartet includes Patrice Rushen on keyboard, Sonny Emory on drums, and Melvin Davis on bass in addition to Ritenour on lead guitar.

The performance takes place 8 p.m. at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $28 and are available here.