Wynton's quintet until he joined with rock icon Sting's band for a year. He

has since led his own straight-ahead jazz quartet. As his replacement with

Blakey, Wynton recommended fellow New Orleanian Terence Blanchard

(b. 1962), who later formed a group with altoist Donald Harrison also

from New Orleans, as co-leader.

Many other gifted players have emerged during the present decade -- too

many to list here. Many have affirmed their roots in bebop, and some have

reached even further back to mainstream swing (such as tenorist Scott

Hamilton (b. 1954), and trumpeter Warren Vache, Jr. [b. 1951]), but

almost all, even when choosing experimentation and innovation, operate

within the established language of jazz. As in the other arts, Jazz seems to

have arrived at a postmodern stage.

We ought not to overlook the increasingly important role being played by

women instrumentalists, among them Carla Bley, JoAnne Brackeen, Jane

Ira Bloom, Amina Claudine Myers, Emely Remler and Janice Robinson.

The durability of the Jazz tradition has been symbolically affirmed by two

events: the Academy Award nomination of Dexter Gordon, the seminal

bebop tenor saxophonist, for his leading role in the film Round Midnight,

and the widely acclaimed appearances of Benny Carter, approaching his

90th birthday, at the helm of the American Jazz Orchestra (an ensemble

formed in 1986 to perform the best in Jazz, past and present) both as a

player and composer.

And one may also take heart at the qualitative as well as quantitative

growth of Jazz education in this country, and the active involvement of so

many fine performing artist in this process.

SUMMING UP

No one can presume to guess what form the next development in Jazz will

take. What we do know is that the music today presents a rich panorama

of sounds and styles.

Thelonious Monk, that uncompromising original who went from the

obscurity of the pre-bop jam sessions in Harlem to the cover of TIME and

worldwide acclaim without ever diluting his music, once defined jazz in his

unique way:

"Jazz and freedom," Monk said, "go hand in hand. That explains it. There

isn't anymore to add to it. If I do add to it, it gets complicated. That's

something for you to think about. You think about it and dig it. You dig it."

Jazz, a music born in slavery, has become the universal song of freedom.

Jazz History - Periods, Styles

Batchelor, Christian: This thing called Swing ; a study of Swing music and the Lindy Hop, the original Swing dance. London 1997.

Belaire, David C. G.: A guide to the big band era. 1997.

Bergerot, Franck & Arnaud Merlin: The story of jazz ; bop and beyond. New York 1993.

Berlin, Edward A.: Ragtime ; a musical and cultural history. Reprint (1980). Berkeley, Calif. [etc.] 1984.

Boyd, Jean A.: The jazz of the southwest;an oral history of Western Swing. Austin, Tex.1998.

Budds, Michael J.: Jazz in the 60s ; the expansion of musical resources and techniques. Expanded ed. Iowa City, Ia. 1990.

Carver, Reginald & Lenny Bernstein: Jazz profiles ; the spirit of the nineties. New York 1998.

Cockrell, Dale: Demons of disorder ; early blackface minstrels and their world. Cambridge 1997.

Collins, R.: New Orleans jazz ; a revised history ; the development of American music from the origin to the big bands. New York 1996.

Corbett, John: Extended play ; sounding off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein.Durham, N.C. 1994.

Dean, Roger T.: New structures in jazz and improvised music since 1960. Milton Keynes 1991

Deffaa, Chip: Swing legacy foreword by George T. Simon. Metuchen, N.J. [etc.] 1989.

Deffaa, Chip: Voices of the jazz age ; profiles of 8 vintage jazzmen. Wheatley 1990.

DeVeaux, Scott: The birth of Bebop ; a social and musical history. Berkeley, Cal. [etc.] 1997.

Erenberg, Lewis A.: Swingin' the dream ; big band jazz and the rebirth of American culture. Chicago, Ill. [etc.] 1998.

Feather, Leonard: The encyclopedia yearbooks of Jazz. Reprint (1956 & 1958). New York 1993.

Feather, Leonard: The passion for jazz. Reprint (1980). New York 1990.

Fernett, Gene: Swing out ; great Negro dance bands. Reprint (1970). New York 1993.

Goldberg, Joe: Jazz masters of the 50s. Reprint (1965). New York [1983].

Gottlieb, William P.: The golden age of jazz. New & revised ed. San Francisco, Cal. 1995.

Griffiths, David: Hot jazz ; from Harlem to Storyville. Lanham, Md. [etc.] 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The best damn trumpet player ; memories of the big band era & beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1996.

Grudens, Richard: The music men ; the guys who sang with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1998.

Grudens, Richard: The song stars ; the ladies who sang with the bands and beyond. Stony Brook, N.Y. 1997.

Hadlock, Richard: Jazz masters of the 20s. Reprint (1965). New York 1988.

Hall, Fred: Dialogues in Swing ; intimate conversations with the stars of the Big Band era. Ventura, Cal. 1989.

Harrison, Daphne Duval: Black pearls ; blues queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick, N.J. [etc.] 1990.

Hennessey, Thomas J.: From jazz to swing ; Afro-American jazz