Yes I concur with Diki on this one, as well as Donny.

I used to play in a piano trio back in the day, the four and 5 piece lineups came later. So I got used to playing a whole lot of songs just using keys with a drummer and bassist.

In fact I try to stick to that as much as possible even now, so most styles I use have no keyboard in them, very little guitar (unless its a rock tune) and off we go. Same goes for the smf's I use too.

Also, and my view only, I think it makes it much more fun to play. But that's just me.

I know others like having the full brass and string sections et al, and thats cool too.

As for playing with a style or a smf, they are pretty much one and the same to me, ( albeit after the aforementioned editing)so I too, don't understand the seemingly major rift on this issue.

Dennis