I am pretty sure that he got the capacity to sound like that while playing with Ray Brown ...
It is one of those things that can happen only in the apprenticeship system. You stand close to somebody who's got it, night after night, and then something clicks and the unconscious takes over ...
Passing through this I would go out running, finding Fausts Mephisto and do everything to close the deal ;-)
No concerns about equipment never more ...
