This is the 82nd year in the extraordinary life of the greatest saxophone player in the world – Sonny Rollins. Four decades ago, as a young filmmaker and aspiring musician, Dick Fontaine followed Rollins up onto the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan during one of his legendary escapes from the perils of ‘the jazz life’. Today, still resisting stereotype and compromise, and revered by a new generation of young musicians, Rollins continues his single-minded search for meaning in his music and his life.

Dick Fontaine’s film, made for the BBC’s prestigious art series Arena, is built around the explosive energy of Sonny’s 80th-birthday concert, where legendary figures Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman, join him to celebrate his journey so far, his music and its future for a new generation.

Arena series editor Anthony Wall will introduce the film. Wall and Fontaine will then join in a panel discussion on jazz in film and its place as a seminal 20th-century art form.  The discussion will be chaired by Graham Benson, a trustee of the Oxford Literary Festival; its film, television and theatre consultant; and a former chairman of BAFTA.

This event will last one hour 30 minutes.

A BBC Arena Bebop Productions co-production