List of musicians changed career with better success...


Hi I followed musicians from certain bands that were much higher class and caliber than the band they used to play and here’s my nominees:

1. Mike Stern -- Blood Sweat and Tears reached his prime as virtuoso fusion guitarist and set up quite a few interesting projects
2. John Paul Jones -- Led Zeppelin. He can play various instruments and created great projects especially one with Diamanda Galas which is far more creative than his carreer in Led Zeppelin.
3. Andy Summers -- Police became jazz guitarist and created great albums in 90’s
4. Gary Brooker -- Procol Harum -- pianist and vocal of Procol Harum. His solo albums are more interesting than ones with Procol Harum
5. Colin James Hay -- Men At Work -- multi-instrumentalist, bassist and vocal released very few albums that are definitely beyond the class of Man At Work
6. Steve Stevens -- guitarist who performed with Billy Idol created great solo albums...
7. Finally among the Beatles, I believe the most successful solo career that goes beyond the Beatles I believe belongs to George Harrison.

Welcome to chip-in...
czarivey
Members of CAN, Japan and King Crimson are very creative by nature. They had equally successful times within and outside their bands.
Robert Fripp, 
Bill Brufford (Earthworks)
Steve Jensen
Richard Barbieri
David Sylvian
Ruichi Sakamoto
Mick Karn
Mark Isham
Holger Czukai
Irmin Schmidt
Michael Karoli
Rebop Kwaku Bah
Damo Suzuki

Check their solo albums. They've been also collaborating tight with Brian Eno as well.

Another genius outside of Roxy Music is actually Phil Manzanera who's skills are far beyond the qualities of Roxy Music. He also formed his own band "Explorers".
None mentioned Pat Metheny and Mike Brecker who started with Joni Mitchel... 
@folkfreak Good call re: David Sylvian! One of the most under-appreciated musicians IMHO. Secrets From the Beehive is a desert island disk for me for sure. Cheers,

Spencer
David Sylvian is very appreciated. He didn't have any large commercial goals and obviously wasn't "King of Pop" or "King of Swing".
>Pat Metheny and Mike Brecker who started with Joni Mitchel...

That's some bad info there.


@czarivey Really? He never got radio airplay, not even on college radio. Hell, most people never even heard of the band Japan. When Sylvian played live, he rarely could get any venue >500 seats. Most record stores wouldn't even give him his own plastic divider card. IMHO, that is UNDER-appreciated considering his great talent, both musically and as a singer. 
Sometimes I think you just enjoy disagreeing. Cheers,
Spencer