The Rite of Strings is a collaborative album by virtuosi Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...

, Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...

 and Jean-Luc Ponty

Jean-Luc Ponty

Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...

, recorded after their world tour in 1995. The album was recorded at Studio 56, Hollywood.

The trio reunited for a performance at the French jazz festival called "Jazz in Marciac" in 2007.

Material from the album was performed on tour by Trio!

TRIO!

Trio! was a one-time acoustic jazz fusion supergroup during 2005. It consisted of bassist Stanley Clarke , jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty , and banjoist Béla Fleck .Much of the material performed by Trio! was from The Rite of Strings, with Fleck...

 in 2005, also featuring Clarke and Ponty, with Béla Fleck

Béla Fleck

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...

 on banjo instead of Di Meola on guitar.

Track listing

1. "Indigo" (Al Di Meola) – 7:15
2. "Renaissance" (Jean-Luc Ponty) – 4:33
3. "Song To John" (Stanley Clarke & Chick Corea
   Chick Corea
   Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
   
   ) – 6:00
   • Dedicated to the memory of John Coltrane
     John Coltrane
     John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
     
     
4. "Chilean Pipe Song" (Di Meola) – 6:12
5. "Topanga" (Clarke) – 5:50
6. "Morocco" (Di Meola) – 5:45
7. "Change Of Life" (Ponty) – 5:30
8. "La Cancion De Sofia" (Clarke) – 8:30
9. "Memory Canyon" (Ponty) – 6:00

Personnel

• Al Di Meola
  Al Di Meola
  Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...
  
   – acoustic guitar
• Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
  
   – acoustic bass
• Jean-Luc Ponty
  Jean-Luc Ponty
  Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...
  
  – acoustic violin