"Isn't jazz a bit like folk?"

Very superficially. Yes, neither is mainstream but here is what concerns me:

Jazz has reached the status of "art form" while folk has not. One reason blacks have dropped away from blues so drastically is that it is not an art form. They have clung to jazz because it is. Because of this, shows as the Grammys can't ignore jazz. To do so, would be perceived as a slap in the face. They must acknowledge it. But the Grammys are an awards program based really on sales and not artistic merit. They like to think they are but they aren't. So they have found a way to use jazz--to block those popular artists they feel it would be beneath their dignity to award and to achieve this by creating bullshit categories to give to the "jazz" artist.

I'd much rather that jazz be ignored by the Grammys because what they inevitably issue awards for is not jazz for the very reason an earlier poster stated: The pop music listener perceives it as tuneless rambling. Jazz is what it is and turning pop into jazz and then awarding it doesn't make it jazz and doesn't further the cause of jazz.