Guitarist Lee Ritenour’s interests and abilities are so broad, he has to limit himself when he sits down to compose. Sometimes he’ll begin like many writers, by working from musical ideas. Other times, he’ll think about his collaborators and sign up musicians before he even has the music written.

“It definitely helps to have a direction,” said Ritenour, who hits town Tuesday for a set at Blue Note Hawaii. “I’m just starting with a white piece of paper, so the more definition, the better for me. I’m so versatile that it’s just a huge white canvas, so it’s better to make it a bit smaller.”

In 40 years at the top of the business, Ritenour has shown just how big his canvas is by defining contemporary jazz guitar through his pieces. As a teenager he worked as a studio musician, recording more than 3,000 sessions with everyone from the Mamas and the Papas to Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Tony Bennett and opera singer Renee Fleming. His contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay debuted in 1991 with an eponymous album that spent 33 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart. To prove that was no fluke, the group received a Grammy nomination for its follow-up, “Between the Sheets,” while its third album “Elixer,” spent nearly two years on the charts.

He’s recorded more than 40 albums and charted 35 songs, with “Is It You” considered a contemporary classic. In 1986 a single from the album “Harlequin,” which he created with pianist/arranger Dave Grusin, won a Grammy, and Ritenour has been nominated for Grammys on 16 other occasions.

Ritenour, 64, grew up in Los Angeles, a guitar lover at a time when the instrument was in its heyday.

“The late ’60s were an incredibly popular time for guitar,” he recalled. “You had great jazz players, you had rock ’n’ roll with Hendrix and Eric Clapton. You had Chet Atkins and B.B. King. You had monster guitar players in every field. … I was kind of borrowing from all of those spices, and over the 40 years I’ve sort of dipped into all those areas, and it winds up sounding like Lee Ritenour.”

His father was smart enough to take advantage of everything the entertainment-oriented city had to offer by seeking out teachers and mentors for his son.

“It was kind of amazing in Los Angeles back then. All those musicians were listed in the phone book,” Ritenour said. “My dad just called up Joe Pass (a pioneering jazz guitarist who was part of an influential duo with pianist Oscar Peterson in the ’70s) and said, ‘I’ve got a talented 12-year-old, would you give him some lessons?’ … Not all of them would say yes, but most of them did.”

Ritenour studied extensively with Pass, but his broader skills were enhanced through his work with Duke Miller, a classical guitarist who would go on to become head of guitar studies at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

“Miller was so innovative in his harmonies and his chords. He would have me me write my own chord work, so I really got a good grounding and understanding in the structure of composition,” said Ritenour. “I really believe that you play with your heart, your ears and your eyes.”

If you can read music, you can try your hand at some of Ritenour’s music. He’s made several of his tunes available on his website.

It’s just one way that he’s giving back after 40 years of success. He also heads up the 6 String Theory guitar contest, now in its fifth year. Named for his 2010 album, the contest offers scholarships to the Berklee College of Music, endorsements from Yamaha and performance opportunities with Ritenour.

Here in Honolulu, Ritenour will perform with his son and drummer Wes, bassist Melvin Davis and pianist/composer John Beasley. He’s featuring his latest album, last year’s “A Twist of Rit,” a re-imagining of some of his older tunes, as inspired by modern times.

“We went back to the ’70s and ’80s material and took a few tunes that we thought could be relevant in today’s world, and gave them some fresh arrangements to be constructed and reconstructed, and twisted it,” he said.

“They’re not necessarily hits, because I wasn’t looking for a ‘best of’ project. I was looking at some of the groups like Snarky Puppy — some of the R&B guys who are borrowing so heavily from the ’70s and ’80s sounds — and I thought, ‘We were the guys who were doing that, so let me twist it myself and see how it goes.’ I was pleasantly surprised about how the material we picked stands the test of time.”

His other major project, which is just being released now, is an all-vinyl reissue of five of his most popular albums. One of the albums, “Westbound,” has never been out on vinyl before, but even if you have the LPs of the other four — “Earth Run,” “Portrait,” “Festival” and “Color Rit” — you can expect to hear the tunes in a fresh way.

“The mastering process is radically different than the way it was in the ’80s, with the limiters and the processors,” said Ritenour, who said he took a “huge” role in the editing process. “You can get a lot more presence, better levels and more fatness than they used to back then.”

So would he call it the definitive version of those albums?

“Audiophiles will have the final say on that,” he said modestly.

If you like what you hear, keep an eye out for April 30, which President Obama has proclaimed International Jazz Day. Ritenour will join Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Diana Krall and Aretha Franklin in a performance broadcast from the White House.

“I’m really proud to be part of that,” Ritenour said.