Yes, I asked for comments, Chas, and we all have our own opinions of what constitutes a great entertainer. Like many here, I have traveled all over the world during my youth, seeing hundreds upon hundreds of entertainers in other nations, most of which were very talented. Until a relatively recent trip to Cozumel, I did not see an OMB entertainer with an arranger keyboard. The guy in Cozumel was pretty good, but not nearly to the level of Abby.

In the 1950s, when I was in the Mediterranean area, most of the OMB entertainers I saw were piano players, guitar players, mandolin players and accordion players. Some were pretty darned good, sang well and interacted with the crowds. Most were mediocre at best, though.

I have a friend who was an OMB entertainer in Shanghai. He's very, very good, but was a fairly rare commodity in that part of the world. He eventually hired four very talented, drop dead gorgeous lady musicians to go on stage with him and is now booked 7 days a week. He travels throughout the far east and southeast Asia, he plays an arranger keyboard, while the ladies play every instrument the can carry.

When I was in the UK, there were very few OMB entertainers, most played piano, and while some were very good, they were not coming out of the woodwork. The same was true in South Africa and South Australia - very few OMB entertainers of any kind.

When I was in Saint Johns, Newfoundland I didn't see a single OMB entertainer - not one. Now, I was on there for six weeks, but the guys I worked with there setting up a NASA tracking station insisted on going out and doing the town every night. Several duos, trios and combos, but not an OMB entertainer in the entire town that I saw.

In reality, OMB entertainers using arranger keyboards are a very rare commodity, at least from my experience. There seems to be more of them on the east coast than anywhere else in this nation, while the other major concentrations appear to be in the UK.

That said, we have some really good musicians on this forum, of which I am not one of their number. I'm just a hack entertainer that made a good living in the OMB entertainment business. We have a few good entertainers, some of which I have had the privilege to see performing in person. Only a few were at the same level of Abby Pianoman. IMHO, he is indeed a rare commodity in this field of endeavor.

Gary