[95avblm3]

Pat Metheny, specifically the Pat Metheny Group with Lyle Mays on keyboard, is probably my favorite band/group of all time. I listen to a lot of music but I listen to a lot of Pat Metheny over and over again. I think you can argue that Miles Davis was the beginning of the jazz fusion era that really hit its peak in the '70's (maybe somewhat into the '80's) by his influence on musician's such as Metheny, Jaco Pastorious and Weather Report, Return to Forever, etc. As much of a fan as I am of Metheny and Weather Report, I've never really gotten into Davis... I feel like I need to listen to more to try and understand it better.

I've seen Spyro Gyra live and they are great but to me are more of the Smooth Jazz genre, which has some good musicians such as Spyro but in recent years has morphed into monotonous elevator crap... a remake of Dave Brubeck's Take Five in 4/4 time by a no name I can't remember really turned me off of Smooth Jazz.

On a similar token, Steely Dan has always appealed to me for their jazz-like structures on albums such as Aja as well as their extensive use of very talented studio musicians, some of whom have come to the forefront of their craft... e.g. Michael McDonald.