Truthfully – he came across on stage more like a
band teacher working with his best students. And the students individually had
impressive moments. Hiromi, the piano player is
The drummer, Ron Bruner Jr., was the most talented
player outside of Clarke. However, young Mr. Bruner could use a lesson in
staying in the pocket when needed. Too many times he sped the jam up to a point
where everyone was just banging their instrument to keep up. That’s okay on
occasion but you can’t take every song there. By the way – the drums – should
be used almost exclusively as an accompaniment. Drum solos tend to all sound
the same and impressive as Bruner was – his solos too wound up having me wondering
when they might end. With all that criticism – you might think I didn’t care
for Bruner. Not so. In fact – I’m certain we will all hear more from this kid
(that resembles Orlando Magic point guard Jameer Nelson). He is a bad MF. He
just needs more experience and he needs to slow down more often.
The fourth member of the band on keyboards - Ruslan
Sirota was clearly not in the same performance class as Hiromi, Bruner and
Clarke. He was shy to jump in when needed.
They played a tune from Return to Forever –
Prior to the show – I purchased a t-shirt and was
told that