One would not expect to be allowed to play traditional music in a jazz club

Actually, Lonnie Donegan started singing American folk songs by Leadbelly, and similar material, in the interval of jazz sessions with the likes of the Ken Colyer Jazzmen.

If, for a comparison, you look at jazz and its following in the 1950s and, to a certain extent, the 1960s - as I'm sure Hoot, among others here, will remember - there were similar schisms to those described in the folky world. Those believing in the purity of the early New Orleans sounds were dubbed "mouldy figs" by those know by the other, modernist side as "dirty boppers"! All pretty hilarious in retrospect - and those were the days when jazz clubs were far more numerous than they are today. A bit like the folk scene in some ways. Where are the jazz clubs now - mostly long gone, with what music there is being played in pubs and bars.

I played jazz in pubs and the odd club in the late '60s up to the mid '80s - in London and then in Brighton - and remember clearly that the repertoires in those days were actually quite eclectic. Our own band played stuff as diverse as Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" (in Mongo Santamaria style) and "Canal Street Blues" - a real mixture of old and new, with all sorts of things thrown in - even the odd Beatles number. All that mattered was that the tunes were worthy of playing and getting into melodically and harmonically.

Musicians will not be constrained from playing what they want to play - because music is a complex and constantly evolving art. And the club scene is not the be-all and end-all as far as venues are concerned. As far as my own personal tastes are concerned, my preferences are to make music communally in a session or to play for dancing - both exhilarating and tremendous fun.