I think that this kind of comparison and argument between those who favour Trad Jazz and those who favour Modern Jazz is completely absurd.

I liken it to an argument between someone who says that Newton was a better scientist that einstein and another who says that einstein was better than newton.

Thats not science this is ... no its not ... etc

In fact, together, they are just a part of our knowledge.

There is no einstein without newton, and newtons theories are inadequate without einsteins embellishments.

The same is true in Jazz. Its evolution had depended on those who came before, and those who camee before were seeking to push new boundaries which those who camee after were able to bring to fruition.

The same is true of the progreession from Medieval, to rennaissance, to Baroque, classical, romantic, modernist and post modernist developments in musical composition.

Music evolves and we can classify it according to genre and stage of development according to certain signature features.

Sometimes those signature features overlap.

The result is discussions like these about folk, jazz etc.

Music is so fluid, and its borderlines so flexible that sticking to rigid definitions, like the 1954 stone tablet from God delivered unto the great mudcat on mount sinai is absolutely absurd.