For those unaware, Mercury Studios is proud to release for the first time on CD Rite Of Strings: Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival 1994 on October 28th, 2022.

Previously released on DVD in 2005, the brilliant interplay between three virtuoso musicians — Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke — is on full display.

The nine-track two-CD set features such deep cuts as “Renaissance” and “Memory Canyon” along with six others. Violinist Jean-Luc Ponty had never played with guitarist Al Di Meola. Their special on-stage chemistry is all over this sterling performance.

CD #1:
1) “Song To John”
2) “Memory Canyon”
3) “La Cancion De Sofia”
4) “Summer Country Song”
5) “School Days”
6) “Eulogy To Oscar Romero”

CD #2:
1) “Renaissance”
2) “Chilean Pipe Song”
3) “Song To John” (with Monty Alexander)
4) “Indigo”

Opening on the dimensional composition, and tribute to John Coltrane, “Song To John” (a Clarke/Corea composition from Clarke’s 1978 Modern Man) and the free flowing harmonies within “Memory Canyon”, next up is the soulfully interactive musings of “La Cancion De Sofia” (a song that would prove to be the highlight of this trio’s subsequent album together a year later), which is itself backed seamlessly by the Al Di Meola soloing within the dulcet “Summer Country Song” and Stanley Clarke soloing on the graceful “School Days”, the first CD rounding out with Jean-Luc Ponty’s soloing on melodious beauty of “Eulogy To Oscar Romero” (off his 1983 Individual Choice).

The second CD opens with the fantastically spirited “Renaissance” and is followed by one of my own personal favorites from this album, the folkloric South American grooves that permeate Di Meola’s breathtaking “Chilean Pipe Song” (where all three spiral upwards to a whirlwind conclusion), which is followed with an encore performance by guest pianist Monty Alexander perfectly recreating what Chick Corea himself might have added on another rendition of “Song To John”, the album coming to a close with the second encore work, the jazz fusion of “Indigo”.

Di Meola—dubbed “Best Jazz Guitarist” by Guitar Player magazine for five consecutive years (’77-’81)—is on fire. His solos on acoustic guitar sting in a non-stop dizzying flurry of notes while bassist Clarke slides up, over and underneath his every riff with alarming dexterity. The absence of drums frees each master musician to fill in the spaces with pure technique.

At 21, Clarke first played Montreux with Stan Getz. Later in his career, his “slap” technique became a funk standard. His solo School Days, in ’74, cemented his rep as a fusion icon.

Jean-Luc Ponty exploded out of Europe to join Frank Zappa and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Known for being the first violinist to fully integrate electronics and effects into his playing made him the Jimi Hendrix of the Violin. Here, in an acoustic format, his playing is sweet, swift and fully supportive.

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