Jim, your snide comment here seems to be ignoring that taste is a personal thing. What you consider an apex is not shared by all.
While I did not have an opportunity to see Sonny Rollins live in the 50's, I did see his quartet with Don Cherry live, and also saw him live a number of times over a number of different decades. Once in Detroit, once in New York City, Once in Rochester New York, and once here in Tucson.
While many (though not all) of those live performances were highly enjoyable for me, nonetheless my personal preference is for his early recordings.