Hi - yeah, I guess I qualify as "old school" too ... spent ~20 years playing keys in a 6pc band ... in my earliest years (high school, early college), I did play a lot of LH bass, but after that we always had a bass player.

I usually had 2 keyboards; one primary for piano and e-piano sounds (I used to like this one to be a 76 note), and a "top" keyboard that did the synths, organs, flutes and saxes, the occasional trumpet etc. I think it was when the KN-800 (Technics) came out that I had my first experience with 'arrangers' ... but I mainly still played in the band. But by the 1990s or so, I was starting to use the arranger in a duo and trio setting, then by 2000s and beyond, did more and more solo gigs using the arranger (Technics then Yamaha).

But I still love it when I can get with a full band and be a keyboard player - and let the drummer and bass player and guitar player fill out the rhythm section! :-) That is the favorite playing experience for me still - playings keys on a good and full band - but I love doing the arranger thing too . . .

-Jim