I went to see jazz saxophonist and flautist Courtney Pine do a gig at St Clements Church, 200 yards from my house, last night as the finale of the 2009 Chorlton Arts Festival. It was fab night out with Courtney and a buzzing band mainly playing stuff off his latest album Transition in Tradition. Violinist Omar Fuente in particular was a revelation and it's not often you get to see someone like Mr Pine in a 250 seater venue...

The point I wanted to make was that at one point Courtney said something like: "Some people say jazz should be what it sounded like in 1930 or what it sounded like in 1960. But each new generation brings something different to it and reshapes it in their own way. And as long as you can still trace the roots of what they are doing back to the source, it's jazz".

This sounded eminently sensible to me. Without wanting to start another "what is folk/pro and anti 1954" thread, do people think there are any parallels in this comment on jazz music for folk music? I am minded of the similarity between Courtney's comment and how fRoots magazine describes itself as covering music rooted in tradition (rather than only traditional music or music not rooted in a tradition).

Comments on a postcard, please. Play nicely!