It is therefore clear that the audience does not care at all whether you make music yourself or not, but how you present it all.
Impuls
I respectfully disagree. It depends on the audience and the venue. If you tried 'faking it' in a jazz club (YES, they're still around), you'd get run out of the place. If the audience is there for THE MUSIC, they are not going to be nearly as accepting as those that are there to be 'entertained'. Also, is it a 'listening' audience or a 'dancing'/let's party, ya'll' audience. There is also the question of QUALITY. A really good singer/arranger player is always going to trump a bad band. But where the quality is equal, and given a reasonably sophisticated (and sober) audience, the band is almost always preferable. Of course, this is all theory as I've never personally seen an arranger player in any venue in all my 99 years on this planet. Maybe I need to get out more?chas