You’d think at 16 years old, playing a session with the Mamas & the Papas back in the swinging sixties (and dubbed “Captain Fingers” for manual dexterity on the guitar) would have gone to Lee Ritenour’s head. It did not. The adulation poured on him in those early days, he poured right back into perfecting the guitar playing that, to this day, he loves most, and will share with audiences over the weekend at Blues Alley. Since that first session in 1968, Ritenour, composer, recording artist and producer, has appeared on more than 3,000 sessions, recorded 42-plus albums and has charted more than 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. These days, touring is a particularly satisfying pursuit for the man whose Top 15 hit, “Is It You” has become a contemporary jazz radio classic and who has recorded with the likes of George Benson, B.B. King, Chris Botti and Ernie Watts.

“The other night I played in Miami to 2,500 people,” he said earlier this week. “Then in Orlando [there were] 400 people. It varies constantly from the big stage to the small stage.”