This was never going to be the kickass gig that last week's Jason Moran/Monk concert was and nobody thought that it would be. The trio, McCoy Tyner (pno), Gerald Cannon (bs) and Eric Gravatt (dms), augmented by Joe Lovano on tenor, performed ably but by comparision, the opener, Monk's "Ruby My Dear," was but a pale maiden.
Tyner's playing suffered, through no fault of his own. from a slight muddiness of sound and Lovano appeared to be going through the motions; albeit very good motions.
The general consensus in the bar at the end of the first set was 'good show but no cigar'.
The second set was a whole different ballgame. The pianist kicked off with an unaccompanied version of "I Should Care" that was worlds away from what had gone before. Dazzling runs à la Tatum interspersed with some of tomorrow's chords made this an item of contemporary beauty. At last, we knew the game was afoot; if the phrase hadn't been used so many times before I'd have said that this was 'The Real McCoy'.
Lovano, wearing a fedora hat, Gravatt and Cannon joined the fray and a storming set followed with Joe more than once nodding in the direction of his Coltranic ancestory. Eric Gravatt's drum solos were particularly dextrous whilst Gerald Cannon provided a solid root and his solos were characterised by a roundness of tone tempered with touches of rare humour. The evening concluded with "In A Mellotone" and a deserved standing ovation.
I guess they got the cigar after all.
1 comment :
Haven't heard "In a Mellotone" for ages, so just listened to the Duke on an album called "Cotton tail" (I think!) The guitar so reminds me of my late dear dad, he played just like that..all the good bits of me come from him, bless him. Even after 17 years I still miss him, but of course he left such a legacy in music. Almost the last conversation we had was about "Satin doll"
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