Jazz is a funny genre. It lost its cultural cachet quite some time ago -- long enough ago for the music to move underground and evolve. But even in 2009, Jazz is still struggling; it is still looking for its way.
There are those who are content to rehash the sounds of the past; there are those who seek to innovate. I'm focusing on the innovators here, but it should be said that there is so much innovation that it is impossible to capture even a tiny slice of it in a short podcast such as this.
Jazz musicians are pushing boundaries with new forms, new combinations of instruments, and by merging the music they know with exotic sounds from other genres: minimalist classical, traditional Indian, Klezmer, and abstract electronic all have a part to play.
This mix is the "edge": it's what's on the frontier if you take the classic bop- and Davis-era recordings as your waypoints. In a future mix, perhaps, I'll show what lies beyond that edge -- music from the modern netherworld of jazz where true chaos reigns.