Well spoken Dave. The styles don't replace a real player or even a drum beat programmed in real time by a human player, but they give me a good enough starting point to work with so that I can compose and add my parts and touches. I am trained as a keyboard player, so I'm not always the best at drumming, but after I get a foundation to start with ( styles ), then I play my parts and later improvise the rythym parts from there. For those occasions when I play as an entertainer, the styles work well in the role of a backup band. I agree too, that when I use my arrangers in that role, simpler styles allow me to cover more tunes than complex ones do.

AJ