Thanks for that Tonight Show clip, acman3; had not seen that!
One of the things that makes Rollins particularly relevant is the fact that he was the first player to have the cojones to play without a harmony instrument. He pioneered the piano (guitar)-less trio. Not a gimmick, but a testament to his amazing command of harmony. To an extent, the use of a harmony instrument is a bit of a crutch for a soloist. Without it, the soloist has to improvise in a particularly convincing way which allows the listener to hear the harmony of the tune implied by the soloist’s single-note phrases. Few can pull this off credibly. Another special quality about his playing is (he’s still with us) his unusually commanding sense of rhythm. Often one gets the feeling that the rhythm section is playing to HIS pulse, not the other way around as is usually the case even with great players.
My favorite Sonny recording (3 volumes); like the great “Way Out West” it is piano-less:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0q2VleZJVEk03oGLxkxjZs-JGjm8fMu4