Pretty soon, though, Mr. O'Neill's normally strong, clarion voice sounded tight and patchy.
This was the last stop on Jaga Jazzist's first North American tour in seven years, and the band sounded tight and twinkly, corny and rugged, quite episodic.
If it were playing Count Basie, say, the band would have sounded tight and right; playing "A Love Supreme," it sounded Las Vegas.
Though the soprano Julianne Baird sometimes sounded tight in her upper register, she is an admired exponent of early music and sang with focused sound and grace.
When it didn't, the Crutchfields formed P.S. Eliot, which was a bit more ramshackle and a lot better, as they discovered all the rock-and-roll commandments — including the imperative to sound "tight" — that they could happily ignore.
Mr. Buffett's band sounded tight, if a little slick – steel drums, horn section, cheery vocal harmonies – and he wisely brought the guitarist Sonny Landreth out for a number of songs.
Mr. Osby, the alto saxophonist, keeps changing his small bands, but they always end up with his identifiable group sound: tight and adherent to the compositions, which have lovely warped melodies.
Mr. Gilbert and the orchestra were at their best: the players' sumptuous sound, tight ensemble and spirited execution made a strong case for Walton's updated orchestrations of the Renaissance pieces and pointed up the ingenuity of his own characteristically descriptive scoring (most notably his vital, recurring "Spirit of England" motif).
Jonathan and his merry team have only been touring their new album Get To Heaven for a month but the new songs they do play sound tight, the alternating jerk and falsetto of the old days supplemented by some big top pleasers.
