Sonny Rollins knows how to throw a party. His 80th-birthday celebration at New York’s Beacon Theatre on September 10, 2010 was the jazz event of the year, and the release of Road Shows, vol. 2 allows everybody to share in the already-legendary proceedings. There’s also music recorded in Japan around the time of his 80th.
Sounding as robust and inventive as ever, the tenor saxophone titan joins forces with an unprecedented array of friends old and new, including Jim Hall, Roy Haynes, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, and, most unexpectedly, alto sax revolutionary Ornette Coleman. The festivities add another illustrious chapter to the career of jazz’s most prodigious improviser.
