This book by an influential critic who has written for 'Rolling Stone' and 'Village Voice' celebrates the perseverance of jazz in a decade inhospitable to it. Each chapter focuses on one musician or group of musicians under forty years of age, who have made their reputations or are in the process of doing so, and carries biographical data, interview material, and a critical evaluation. Among the phenomena which these essays will examine are the rapprochement of jazz and classical music and between jazz and rock, neoconservatism, the growing importance of the composer, the emergence of important women and European jazz musicians, and the continuing polarization between the jazz main stream and avant garde.