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ORIGINAL: Ricardo

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ORIGINAL: Mark2

Al’s net worth is only 4 million? That can’t be right. If it is that is downright sad. I hope Metheny has done better than that financially because he really is a monster player.

Yes, well in the late 1980's he had a really bad time financially when the industry changed to "smooth jazz radio friendly stuff". Basically his Cielo y terra album killed his brand name, it was too esoteric. I think he was sidelined.

Mclaughlin by contrast did very cool projects then including the Paco duet, a concerto for orchestra, that Johnny Carson spot boosted his name, the Trio with Trilok Gertu, etc. Al got put back up on the map a little in the early 90s when he did Kiss my Axe (a deliberate title that was anti-industry due to them passing on his projects in the late 80s) and at the same time his World Sinfonia. But I saw him play in some small venues in the late 90s and it was World sinfonia material and people were yelling at him from the audience "play Elegant Gypsy" and he was clearly not happy about that. He only recently started doing that again, but I think would have had a more successful career if he had considered that a long time ago.

The only two projects after that I can think of where he played large venues was Rite of Strings and RTF reunion (both with Stanley Clarke which was the true crowd draw IMO). So I feel the poor guy has been sustained only by his early legacy RTF, Elegant Gypsy and Entre dos aguas (Trio). And the general negative sentiment I have tried to defend him against as seen in these topics on foro, has not been helpful. So the 4 Million is reasonable from my view. Gilbert the same, he had a hit song with Mr. Big that sustained him, so they both are in the same category. Paco at time of death 5 million (like Yngwie and "Chuck" Corea), so similar. I am sure real estate is the main factor for those numbers.

Mclaughlin much more successful, however, only 12 million (it is jazz after all) about the same as Steve Vai (who I think just sold his house with music studio included). Niche guitar shred is not ever going to hit the super big time. Metheny is much higher but AI had to estimate so maybe he is not much more than Mclaughlin, but possibly up to 40 Million. Mcartney and jimmy buffet by contrast are Billionaires Meanwhile Antonio Rey or Diego del Morao have to sell their dad's guitars to pay bills.