"Esperanza is every bit a jazz musician extraordinaire. To say she's not is ridiculous."

Sorry but she has not been a jazz musician in five years. She was. She is not now.

"She is a great jazz vocalist as well as bassist."

She played marvelous chops on her first two releases. The last two I can teach any kid whose never touched a bass in his or her life to play in 6 months. It's that easy. That's what they'll want to learn right away and then think they are playing real jazz. They don't want to learn the Songbook even though it is the foundation of jazz training. You have to learn hundreds of standards because everything you need to know about playing jazz is in those standards. Then you take that use it to forge something new. Some kids take to the Songbook and others just hate it.

"Jazz is very much alive in the small venues and clubs around the country."

I don't where you get this. The venues are disappearing. Jazz can't fill the house. Wynton Marsalis often plays to half full houses and he's the "ambassador of jazz." They're having trouble filling houses on 52nd Street and that's the jazz capital of the world! Are you talking about paying gigs or just some place where people play for tips? I won't play for tips. It's not that I'm stuck up. If I play for tips, I'm hurting those jazz musicians who make their living playing music. If I play for tips, then they are expected to play for tips. Those guys have bills to pay just like everybody else. They need to be paid adequately. If a working jazz musician plays for tips out of desperation, then so be it. But I won't play for tips out of respect for those guys because working musicians were my instructors and mentors. I have a regular job and don't depend on gigs to pay bills but I'm also not as good as those guys because I can't devote myself 24/7 to music they way they have. THEY carry the torch and deserve respect for that. If you want to learn jazz, THAT is who you MUST learn from--MUST.

"Wherever there are real musicians there will be jazz, because it takes a real musician to play it."

Playing jazz is like playing classical (since most of us were classically trained to begin with), you have to be taught to play jazz. You can't just learn it sitting in your living room playing the Songbook. You have to be trained by someone who is a master and even then you have to go out and PLAY real gigs. Anybody can play some jazz reasonably well but to get REAL chops you have to be a REAL JAZZ musician not just a real musician.