PoppaGator,
Good to see you here!

You said "..what we used to call "R&B" until that tag started to mean something else entirely -- is directly descended from early "traditional" jazz ... However, though it may be undeniably "traditional," it is definitely NOT what we consider "folk music."

Doesn't it depend who "WE" is?

Meaning, the way African Americans define folk music is probably going to be different than the way European-Americans define it.

It seems to me that Black folks or any other peoples should not allow ourselves to be restricted to one culture's definition of what constitutes folk music, or for that matter, what is classical music.