no-one holds a candle to McLaughlin - he plays Django insanity loops, take things other dudes did before him to astonishing new heights, inconceivably creates the craziest chords, solos, and insanity, but keeps the song moving along perfectly, not to mention the best odd-pattern player, the inventor of countless impossible-to-duplicate grandmaster licks, he's the top of the crop - the rest can only cry. I'm not joking, he covers pretty much all areas all atyles of the guitar, unprecedented, unmistakeable, unbelieveable, undeniably the best. I can only sigh how lame trying to explain it is - he's the absolute equivalent of Miles for the guitar - it's all him for guitar, Miles for trumpet, Coltrane for sax (all around, but for purposes of a rou8ndabout we'll say tenor sax), probably Tony Williams for drums, maybe Art Tatum for piano, probably Anthony Braxton alto sax, and I don't know too much about bass players, but I'd guess Jaco, but I personally love Ron Cater's slide sh!t - he f@#$s sh!t up good ;)

If you really want only the best guys, you need Johnny, Al DiMeola (best tone/touch especially in late 80's so melodic, and very inventive with ambient song melodies and instrumentation), of course Paco de Lucia (crushes em all basically, and the best of the classical super-touch that Al and Johnny play can pretty much be attributed to Paco), then of course Metheny you know - for pretty much whole albums I love offramp and "wichita", and various other songs spread out all over, but he's not that consistent to my tastes so it seems. I don't think Metheny does it for me all-around - I love (and have) tons of his stuff (17 albums, but so many of his albums have songs I don't like, but usually a great song or two per album at least. With Johnny it's way different, you start out loving probably well over 50% of the songs, and then it just goes up from there, and I'm talking about all the songs he ever wrote (that are easily avaliable, anyway). Al does great things too all-around, his beginning to a982 isa solid, then electric rendezvous is a tad 80s synthed which gets old, and some other things around then like scenario had some 80's stuff, but I love mata hari and some other songs off scenario, and off electric rendezvous too...I love the songs electric rendezvous, and alos from "passion grace and fire", orient blue suite - that kind of writing is so entrancing, that's why Al is a grandmaster...anyhow, with Paso I only have Sciroco, Luzia, and dos guitarras flamencas (1968?), I know I need lots more I've heard some of his other stuff...Egberto is HARDCORE - you NEED to hear this guy..."cafe" (also called "danca solitara" is a great song (24:50 I think it is, find a song of his that long, probably it)- I think those two songs are in it - that 24:50 song is actually a suite of 5 songs - forget what it is, look it up on cdnow...of Santana's I can reccomend 1968 fillmore live, santana 1, 2, 3, of course you need viva santana (sort of anthology with some good songs off which album they were the only good song, especially "aquamarine", that's a wicked groove...

For actually purchased albums other than 17 Metheny I have 20+ of Johhny's, 43 miles including 5 big box sets (70+cds total), a bunch of coltrane (2 huge box sets and maybe a dozen single albums (30 cds 25? i think 25), 10-12 Al, only a few Paco's, and no Egbertos yet, but those must come soon, the vai jewel box, a few vai, 10 satriani {I only like a bunch of songs from both vai and satch combined, but DAMN they shine on their best songs...}, and all zep, all hendrix, some srv, 20+ santana {great band...especially first 10 years, 68 to end of seventies}, 120? rap albums, all best somewhat newer rap from chronic and nwa and too short up to maybe 1998 mostly, the best stuff is 1992-1996 of the modern rap era (late 80's was transition phase from kool g" and those kinds of rapper names/styles, to NWA, gangsta sh!t, etc), with only very rare great singles popping up now and then over the past few years in rap, but it's on an upswing now, looks like it will be a boom in r&b and rap, look out!, then I have 120+ rock albums, those srv, jimi, zep are all there, all doors, box sets of all those except srv, a lennon box set (the light blue one of 94 unreleased tracks), some beatles, some other various records, classic seattle sh!t, soundgarden, alice in chains, only a few pearl jam {don't really like them long-term}, beastie boys anthology (all you need :)), 7 sepultura, all metallica, all megadeth {used to have all of those two bands maybe lost those tapes tho}, ), 4 mary J blige, 4 stevie wonder, 8? bela fleck ( u like those guys? I like their little older stuff, up to the 1999 "greatest hits of the century" - some newer stuff sounds very lamed out like some new metheny...

but of johnny, I'd say get pretty much EVERY DAMN ALBUM - the mahavishnu albums are a bit too much to stomach as far as full albums at a time - I love certain songs off each album, Shakti is an acquired taste, but the sheer brilliance of the improvisation is awesome, although you might say it is a tad boring and monotonous, but that's because it's a kind of music that goes on for hours - it has to keep a sort of "pace" even though there are fast and slow spots - but I love the infinite feel it has when you have indian music, especially with Johnny...the new box set is wicked too, but you might not like it - get "remember shakti" the orange one...man you're instantly hooked...the 70's shakti is a bit more raw and in-your-face, but it's good to have the collection rounded out, plus to hear the oscillation between the two times. Also, "apocalypse" with mahavishnu orchestra is INSANITY - it's 5 songs, one real movement really, the 3rd song a bit lame I think with an opera-style singer that's not that great anyway, but I don;t really like that singing style period - I feel like making an insane movie and mating it perfectly to that 40-minute masterpiece. The whole album moves on surprisingly well, like a super-journey - it's an utterly perfect movie score - sounds like it inspired the Star Wars and other famous movie scores.SERIOUSLY - ;) then you will need "the heart of thing live" - the way that first track is assembled and improvised, man that's just INSANITY - I was totally blown away when I heard that...his soloing is SO DAMN INSANE - try doing those shapes and impossible stops and starts...will make you cry if you really want to duplicate it - even if you're 25+ notes per second, you have ABSOLUTELY NO DAMN CHANCE. I can't really say what else...but EVERYTHING of his is worth it if you are a truly serious HARDCORE fiend - I can only say Miles has a repertiore like Johnny - even though some albums you don't really like that much as a whole, man the whole thing together feels like 3/4 of it is pure gold...it's probably the most valuable thing I can ever have...it is so much more than any money or posession...it is perfection

I'd probably say that Johnny and Herbie Hancock carried on Miles' supergenius for the true center of Jazz at any given time - although I'm more towards Johhny personally, lots ot Herbie songs I can't get into that much, but I do love tons of his songs...but I'm a guitar player first, then a piano player, and I will be whipping it up alongside coltrane licks sometime soon when I grab me a sax and go all-out baby~! ;D