McCoy Tyner, Ronnie Scott's

It was an enjoyable concert, but the reviewer is rather too generous to the great McCoy Tyner. One dreads to see one's heroes in decline, but Tyner (who is just over 72, by the way) has lost so much of his former power and the characteristic dense voicings have diminished significantly. By his high standards, the execution was sloppy and I feel that the applause was muted simply because the audience was hesitant to praise indifferent work. Severely under-miked, Bartz's trademark "cry" was all but inaudible; he played well enough but did nothing exciting all night. Cannon and Mela, on the other hand, produced sterling work; the former played beautifully melodic lines with great intricacy. No grumbles about the selections either: the 100-minute performance included Moment's Notice, Ballad For Aisha, Blues On The Corner, Search For Peace and an extended Fly With The Wind. On its own terms, this was a good gig, but I believe one has to go back at least a decade to have experienced the overwhelming torrent of sound for which Tyner's groups are lauded. I would love to fool myself into believing that I had just witnessed another great performance by one of my favourite musicians, but sadly it wasn't to be. By the way, I do wonder what happened on "Later..."? Were they not told how long to play for? Or did Tyner feel that he should make the most of an all-too-rare TV appearance? And why did Jools twice refer to the four-piece group as the McCoy Tyner Trio?

Who is 'Taylor'? And - a jazz performance being about the collective? The performers enjoying themselves? GOSH. I think it's possible Gary Bartz was playing softly on purpose so as not to dominate. Beautiful pure tone from him throughout. I want to say, this is pretty sloppy writing. In a rush to be current you appear to have omitted any interesting content. And why would anybody want to write stuff so full of clichés?

I felt saddened at the Performance...Mccoy was clearly too frail to play,and in my opinion, it was a poor show from him and Gary Bartz...Bass and drums all be it fab!...were not enough to keep this show together...I left at Half Time so to preserve my Fond memories of seeing Mccoy Tyner "THE LEGEND" at his finest,years previous..