Mark,

This is a very subjective thread, one that you have to closely examine many aspects in order to list a single person. From a purely musicianship standpoint, there are lots of outstanding performers on this and other forums that would easily fit this criteria. However, it's not just the person's ability to play the keyboard, it's a multitude of other things that make a person a great arranger keyboard performer/entertainer, not the least of is his or her singing ability.

Additionally, their ability to read an audience and capture them during a performance, their ability to quickly make the transition from one song to the next with little or no dead time between songs, their ability to interact with their audiences and make each and every song a fun event in itself. All of these things combined make a huge difference between someone who is a good musician, and a great OMB musician/entertainer/performer. When you analyze all of those attributes, the list gets pretty small, IMO.

I suspect that Michael Voncken would be right at the top of that list. He has a great singing voice, his repertoire is incredible, he's a master technician with every model of Yamaha keyboard I've seen him play, he's humorous and interacts constantly with his audiences - large and small, and his playing skills are beyond description. I would find it very difficult to put anyone above him in those categories.

Gary