Sonny Rollins plays on despite breaking his heel

Here, saxophonist Sonny Rollins is performing live at Opus 40, a sculpture park in New York, 1986. This concert was remembered for a dramatic incident that involved Rollins misguiding a mid-solo jump from the rock stage and landing heavily on the stone surface six feet below. After a brief and tense pause Rollins continued to play while lying on is back even though it was later learned that he’d broken his heel in the fall. This footage is from the documentary “Saxophone Colossus” by Robert Mugge.