Just came from my kid's school district jazz fest. One of the band instructors mentioned Sonny Rollins had passed and he was the last jazz legend alive that appeared in the A Great Day in Harlem photo : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Great_Day_in_Harlem Maybe what they were referring to...
Sonny Rollins was probably the last great player from the bebop age though who was there at its birth, and probably the last master who played with Charlie Parker too!
Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock are still going strong of course, and still brilliant. George Coleman, Jack DeJohnette, and Dave Holland are all still playing to pick some other names at random.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised to discover that Rollins was still alive. You tend to assume that giants like him are all in the distant past, not still walking the earth.
They’re playing together at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. Bit of a stretch to go to that, but I might go to Indianapolis to see Herbie in August.