Here’s a horse of a different color on this book tour - what is my favorite genre of music and its musicians?

As a music listener, my tastes are far and wide and includes blues, jazz, classical, calypso, metal, ska, R & B, funk, new jack swing, classic rock and progressive rock. As a musician, I’ve played in rock, ska and reggae bands and have released my own album of dance songs. My own personal digital music collection is pretty extensive, the biggest being my classical stockpile. To date, I have music by 546 composers, and it’s a pretty narrow list because the majority of composers are from the Romantic era, and what I collect are only their symphonic and solo piano works, eschewing vocal music and chamber works because I lack the hard drive space. Still, it is a fairly large collection because of geniuses like Franz Liszt. I own 106 albums by him alone. As a completionist, that would mean I have all the piano sonatas and etudes, symphonies, tone poems, concertos, orchestral suites, etc from major brokers like Mahler, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, et. al, as well as lesser known artists like Felicien David, Hugo Alfven, Friedrich Kuhlau, and many others.

That said, the contemporary musicians I have the highest respect for are Sting, Peter Gabriel, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Rush, Yes, David Bowie and Elton John. All of them are, or were, extraordinary musicians, song writers and producers, so much so that I also collect bootlegs of their live performances. Were I forced to choose the creme of the crop of this list, I’d most likely lean towards Peter Gabriel. No, wait. It’d be Sting. Oh, no. I meant Steely Dan. Anyway, there you have it. Rock musicians with a jazzy touch, intelligent lyrics and progressive leanings. Thanks for reading.