Paul, when I played with Zim, mostly at a local restaurant in west Baltimore called Kibby's, most of the time I played the keyboard as just a piano, which I'm not very good at, but he thought I was. Most of the time he had a drummer with a minimal rig, but there were times when I used the keyboard styles with most everything nulled out but the drums and one right hand voice. He had a vibe player from the US Navy Band that was absolutely sensational, and IMO, better than Lionel Hampton.

When I was at the Palace Las Americas in Cancun, they had an arranger keyboard player on stage every night at the shows, even when the big bands were performing. He was using a Yamaha, but I never could see the model number, just the name off to one side and it had a black case. I'm thinking it was a PSR-5700, which was a fantastic arranger keyboard when it came out. Just 35 styles and about the same number of voices, but the sounds were fantastic, especially the piano and vibes voices.

Now, I have not heard you sing, but I have heard your wife sing on several occasions. She has a great voice quality and she interacts very well with the audiences. The reason I offered the information about the voice lessons at the colleges, is because at the very first part of your post you said no one would want to hear you sing for four hours. Maybe the would after the lessons - I don't know. When I was in Nashville, I came across a lady that offered articulation and diction courses for up and coming singers. During her career, she worked with a huge number of the nation's top singers and had rave reviews from them all, including Elvis.

All the best,

Gary