I agree with that. Still, it's jarring to see one of your idols losing it somewhat before your eyes. That happened to me with Dizzy Gillespie too--after 1978 he wasn't the same in live performance.
I saw him at the Dave Holland/Barry Altschul reunion show at Columbia University (last year?), and while yeah, he did a rambling spoken introduction to the show, he then went on and did a near-90 minutes of magnificent playing, almost all on his wind instruments.