Legendary Sonny Rollins Comes Home 50 years Later to Carnegie Hall

My Observations...
A packed house turned out Tuesday night to pay homage and also help Mr. Rollins commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first time playing the Carnegie.
Sonny surrounded himself with an all-star cast. In his first set, Joining him on acoustic bass and possibly the number 1 bassist in the world today, was Christian McBride. McBride did not disappoint. Rollins’ distaste for pianos in his ensembles is well-known. Mcbride, filled that role almost perfectly. Acting as percussion while simultaneously layering on melodies as only he can. You feel yourself wanting Christian to break out but then quickly come to the realization that this is not “his” band and he must stay within the confines of the trio. Carnegie Hall is built for orchestras and not Jazz ensembles. The cavernous stage played havoc on the acoustics, a lot of the sound was absorbed and muddled into the high dome ceiling. However, this characteristic seemed to work for Mcbride as his low whole notes were allowed to reverberate as he trickled through scales in his solos on Some Enchanted Evening and Mack the Knife.
But not to be overlooked was Roy Haynes, the 80 something drummer who seems to still have the fervor and agility of someone a third his age. He went back and forth with his old buddy in a solo that seemed to go on for 15 minutes in the first song of the evening. Mr. Haynes seemed to effortlessly play traffic cop, ushering his cohorts through their respected solo’s.
Rollins Seemed to be more than willing to let the other members of the trio take center stage with him on this historic night. He never really immersed himself in his long signature solos, instead he seemed content on letting Mcbride shine and collaborating with on his solos. Rollins still filled the room with his low tenor grunts and showed remarkable breath control for a player his age. But again he is probably the great living tenor.

In His second set, Rollins was accompanied by his own band. The set was entertaining but less impressive than the first not just because of the personnel but because of sound issues.
In this set Rollins decided to return to his Island Roots with tropical Melodies and calypsos that was infused with west African rhythms. The most memorable moment of the second set was with African percussionist Kimati Dinizulu, who dazzled for 10 minutes with his conga solo on the second to last song. The second set seemed to feature the African conga player.
The entire evening, even though short lived, seemed to be a journey of where Rollins Came from, the era of Miles, Monk and Trane to where he is today. He is still stretching himself musically, challenging musical convention and innovating at the age of 77.