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{{Other uses|Entrée|Hors d'oeuvre|Chu: First Course}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = First Course
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[Lee Ritenour]]
| cover      = First Course (Lee Ritenour album - cover art).jpg
| alt        =
| released   = 1976
| recorded   = October 3 – 15, 1975
| venue      =
| studio     = The Sound Labs, Hollywood, California
| genre      = [[Crossover jazz]], [[smooth jazz]]
| length     = {{Duration|m=41|s=15}}
| label      = [[Epic Records|Epic]] (1976), [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] (1990)
| producer   = [[Skip Drinkwater]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = [[Gentle Thoughts]]
| next_year  = 1977
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1       = [[Allmusic]]
| rev1Score  = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="Ginell">{{cite web|last=Ginell|first=Richard S.|title=First Course|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/first-course-mw0000204268|website=AllMusic|accessdate=1 January 2018}}</ref>
}}
'''''First Course''''' is the debut album by jazz guitarist [[Lee Ritenour]]. The album was released on LP by [[Epic Records]] in 1976 and on CD by [[Columbia Records]] in 1990.

==Reception==
''First Course'' was made when Ritenour was considered the best [[session musician]] in Los Angeles next to guitarist [[Larry Carlton]].<ref name="VG">{{cite web|url=http://www.vintageguitar.com/artists/details.asp?ID=82 |title=…Rit on the Right |last=Moseley |first=Willie G. |accessdate=2007-06-05 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231003928/http://www.vintageguitar.com/artists/details.asp?ID=82 |archivedate=2006-12-31 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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".<ref name="AMG">{{cite web|last1=Ginell|first1=Richard|title=First Course – Lee Ritenour |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/first-course-mw0000204268|website=AllMusic|accessdate=9 May 2017}}</ref>

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."<ref name="VG"/>

Financial problems plagued the album because the "sound perplexed studio executives," who were looking for the next ''[[Bitches Brew]]'' or ''[[Return to Forever (album)|Return to Forever]]''.<ref name="Pop">{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/r/ritenourlee-bestof.shtml|title=Review of The Best of Lee Ritenour|date=October 23, 2003|accessdate=2007-06-05}}</ref> 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.

== Track listing ==
{{Track listing
| all_writing = Lee Ritenour except where noted

| title1      = Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That
| length1     =  6:16

| title2      = Sweet Syncopation
| length2     =  4:47

| title3      = Theme from ''Three Days of the Condor''
| writer3     = [[Dave Grusin]]
| length3     = 4:08

| title4      = Fatback
| length4     = 4:18

| title5      = Memories Past
| length5     = 1:51

| title6      = Caterpillar
| writer6     = Dave Grusin
| length6     = 4:21

| title7      = Canticle for the Universe
| writer7     = [[Jerry Peters]]
| length7     = 6:12

| title8      = Wild Rice 
| length8     = 5:32

| title9      = Ohla Maria (Amparo)
| writer9     = [[Antônio Carlos Jobim]]
| length9     = 3:50
}}

== Personnel ==
* Lee Ritenour – electric guitars (1–4, 6, 8), [[classical guitar]]s (5, 9)
* [[Dave Grusin]] – [[Fender Rhodes]] (1–3, 6–9), synthesizers (2, 3, 6, 7, 9), [[Electric organ|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 (bassist)|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), [[conga]]s (7, 8)
* [[Tom Scott (saxophonist)|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)

=== Production ===
* Jerry Schoenbaum – executive producer 
* Skip Drinkwater – producer 
* Lee Ritenour – associate producer
* [[Al Schmitt]] – engineer 
* Linda Tyler – assistant engineer 
* [[Doug Sax]] – mastering at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, California)
* Sam Emerson – cover photography 
* Fred Valentine – sleeve photography 
* Ron Coro – art direction 
* Mick Haggerty – design 
* Tommy Steele – design

'''1990 Reissue/Remastered credits'''
* Nedra Neal – digital producer 
* Vic Anesini – remastering at [[CBS Studio Building|CBS Studios]] (New York City, New York)
* Chuck Berg – liner notes

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.discogs.com/Lee-Ritenour-First-Course/master/80204 Entry at Discogs]

{{Lee Ritenour}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1976 debut albums]]
[[Category:Lee Ritenour albums]]
[[Category:Epic Records albums]]