let me post some more thoughts actually, just wrote this today to a teacher I had in HS who got me onto Pat years ago. He's a good guitarist himself. I wrote:
Metheny Mehldau is a great record. Its so nice to hear a Pat record with pure melodies again, as much as I love "The Way Up" its cool to have something a bit more simplistic. I do some of my best listening at like 1 or 2 in the morning when I make connections I otherwise don't, and that zone I mentioned, Brad's zone harmonically is not that different than Pat's, they both get off on the same sorta thing like the next to last tune on the record "Annie's Bittersweet Cake". Written by Mehldau, that could easily have been on an early Group record like "American Garage", its not far from Pat's zone at all, he really gets off on the changes in his solo. Then I think its bars 10-11 of the "A" of Pat's "Bachelors III" which I think is an ABA tune, he cops a line straight out of "Three Views of a Secret" which is sooooooooooo hip.