John,

Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments. I appreciated them and all of the nice comments by others as well. Yes, a very talented man. I would love to see what he could do with an arranger just with bass, drums and piano as you said. When he plays at Ray Steven's place, there is an existing piano bar setup which could explain why he uses what he does. However, I believe he has been using the same setup for some time. As you say, the voice and his entertaining are what is most important and he probably feels his setup emphasizes that as is. If I do get a chance to see him, I'll report back.