Tyner and all-star friends jam at Disney Hall

All-star jazz bands run the same risks encountered by all-star sports aggregations. Without the opportunity to come together as smoothly integrated units, they instead often serve as unsynchronized launching pads for flights of individual virtuosity.

That’s pretty much what took place Saturday night in the performance of the McCoy Tyner Quartet at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Despite the proprietary title, this was a Tyner Quartet in name only. The other players -- tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Lewis Nash -- are all stars in their own right, leaders of their own groups, assembling under Tyner’s nominal stewardship for this particular engagement. And the sometimes chaotic on-stage decision-making -- “Is it time for intermission yet?” -- underscored the spontaneous quality of the event.

That’s not to say that some fine music making didn’t take place. But when it did, it largely traced either to individual efforts or to pairings within the quartet. Tyner’s richly harmonized take on the standard “I Should Care,” for example, was an impressive display of the rhapsodic style he often brings to his ballad work. Holland came up with a fascinating effort in every solo he took, and Nash affirmed his reputation as a drummer who emphasizes intense but subtle musicality and unexpectedly airy blends of percussive textures.

Together, Holland and Nash were even better, their relaxed, flowing reciprocity in pieces such as Tyner’s “Angelina” and John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice” providing a welcome sense of urgent swing in numbers that occasionally seemed in danger of veering into navel-contemplating bursts of notes for their own sake.

Lovano was the worst culprit in that sense, devoting virtually every solo -- regardless of the tune, the tempo or the rhythmic style -- to fast-fingered flurries, scouring the horn from low note honks to high harmonics. Although each of these excursions was admirable as a technical achievement, it wasn’t until he dug into Tyner’s jaunty “Blues on the Corner” that the musically amiable, body-moving rhythmic phrasing that is at the heart and soul of Lovano’s style finally began to emerge.

It was tempting to speculate what this group of superb jazz artists could accomplish given the opportunity to work together over a period of time as a true team. As tempting as it might be to speculate what the Lakers might have accomplished as a collective entity rather than a solo showcase. But neither possibility -- so far, at least -- was meant to be.