The rootedness of Jazz even at its most exteme is even more of an issue than it is in Folk. Just check on the work of Sun Ra and Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Thanks for the suggestion: I will certainly do so. However, there is a distinction between rootedness of the genre in terms of techniques and conventions and rootedness of the individual piece. As I freely admit I know nothing about jazz, I don't know if Ra and Rah explore that and to be able to say anything more I'll give an example from ballet, where I know a touch more. "The Nutcracker" is a critical work for most companies. On a recent BBC programme the English National Ballet said it accounted for about one third of their entire box office takings for the whole year, for example. So you have various options. The Royal Ballet have got a version that has been around for many decades and, within the limits of cast changes, costs, scenary decay, etc, they produce essentially the same version every year (it does gradually alter, nevertheless.) Other companies, such as ENB, Northern Ballet, Matthew Bourne's Adventures etc, try to get their market share by doing something less predictable. Even so, all these alternatives are 'true to' the classical ballet conventions and the story.