As a musician, you can expand your palette or stick to a formula that works best for you or elicits the most commercial success. Ramsey Lewis said on his self-titled radio show in 1995, "It's come to my attention that a lot of the young piano players...that you on hear on (the) radio, especially, it sounds like they took a few ounces of Keith Jarrett, a couple parts of Joe Sample, and a few bars of early Ramsey Lewis, and they sort of build a style around that without studying what those three piano players themselves were influenced by and not really going even further into the tradition of jazz piano."
To each, his or her own, but that's a pretty solid argument in favor of not stagnating as an artist.
