I think this is because people misunderstand Rollins as the questing post-bebop improviser, wringing a million variations out of a melody, while overlooking his calypso and R&B sides and failing to recognize that he was always a Riff-Based Man. Jazz's current riff champ? James Brandon Lewis.
Burning Ambulance
Was talking to a saxophonist yesterday about how there are so many John Coltrane imitators (for lack of a better word), but so few for Sonny Rollins. i adore Coltrane, so this is not a slight on him, but more to say that Rollins has always been harder to replicate as he pulled in so many elements
