I saw Tyner two years ago, and the rumours were that he was on his last wheels and it probably was the last time we could see him, the c word was even mentionned. The show by itself didn't do anything to dispell that notion, bad acoustics and lack of tightness between members did not get thoings better. Can't say that he offered an everlasting impression on me that day, maybe i caught him on a bad day.
But fact remains that building 3 to 4 shows featuring him is to me a mistake, the invitation series should be offered to people who are still creative artistically while having a strong musical foundation in their past. While still having a recognizable name that people will buy tickets.
The best invitation series in the last 10 years was probably Dave Holland, his Big Band started here and he had a lot of interesting guests.
Guys who could be hired for the job are Herbie Hancock, Dave Douglas, if you had to go for an older guy who still has great licks try Roy Haynes, Christian McBride could be an intriguing guy to let him go for 4 nights in a row.
We could do great thing with Europeans but for whatever reason they sell a lot less tickets, a lot of people here seem to think less of them because they are not famous Americans