Tim Miller in his Creative Arpeggio Design course on Truefire provides some cool little tips for using minor pentatonic scales in a ii-V-I chord progression, which is the most common chord progression in pre-modal era jazz.
Dmin9 - A minor pentatonic
G7alt - Bb minor pentatonic (hits the altered tones of the altered dominant chord)
Cmaj6 - B minor pentatonic (hits notes from the Lydian mode, producing a "brighter" sound)
Thus extrapolated to more generalized terms:
ii - minor pentatonic perfect 5th up from root
V - minor pentatonic minor 3rd up from root
I - minor pentatonic just half step down from root
The neat thing about these pentatonic scales is you just move up one half step for each chord, as you go through the ii-V-I chord progression - which is very convenient on the guitar.
I'll probably try these pentatonic ideas for a Steely Dan style chord progression:
Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
D/G - F# minor pentatonic or C# minor pentatonic.
E/A - Eb minor pentatonic or Ab minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic
The D/G and E/A slash chords are interesting because each fits two different major scales. To streamline the choices a bit so I can lazily just move the same minor pentatonic pattern up and down with as few steps as possible:
Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 1 up
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 1 down
D/G - C# minor pentatonic - 3 up
E/A - Ab minor pentatonic - 5 down
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 2 up
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 1 down
On the other hand, if I change pentatonic patterns, I can limit the fretboard movement - the numbers indicate the starting fret on the 6th string.
Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 7
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
D/G - F# minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 3rd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
E/A - Ab minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 2nd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 8 (2nd inversion)