Interesting point

[Yesspaz]

Yeah, I agree that there's a tendency for people with chops to showcase them to the detriment of the tune. BUT, neither do I like it when someone's focusing only on melody because they DON'T have chops. I remember Rick Wakeman saying his dad told him to make sure he got classical training, because that would give him the vocabulary to do anything he wanted to do. Chops for chops' sake is boring. But if you take someone with chops and someone without them, give them the same melody and get out of their way, often you'll find that the chops-one can do so much more with it simply because his range of expression is larger.