Czarivey, I think you may be mistaken. Bob Mintzer never played with Weather Report. He played bass clarinet (as well as saxophone and EWI) with The Yellow Jackets and he did play in Jaco Pastorious' band; Jaco was a member of Weather Report.
Mintzer is, without a doubt, one of the most talented modern jazz musicians. Great composer, arranger, author and fabulous instrumentalist. I posted some of is work here quite a while back and he was unfortunately deemed a "noise maker" by the jazz police. He is, after Michael Brecker, perhaps the best of the post-Coltrane style tenor players. Schubert, you made a very astute and interesting observation: Mintzer has not only studied Classical music extensively, but Classical definitely informs his writing (and his playing). Among many other things, he composed a work for saxophone quartet and symphony orchestra premiered by a quartet that I was a member of and a major orchestra. He's quite a talent.