Is Modern Jazz an Oxymoron?

3_E_P, All those artist you list I also like. I was trying to make a point and may have been to strict  limiting myself to the 70's because there are a number of latter artist I like but they do all play that early style of improvisational jazz. Ray Brown Trio; Gene Harris Trio; and the ones you listed. Some more modern jazz singers are timeless if they are good so I don't limit them to a period like Carmen McRae, Karrin Allyson and Kurt Elling. 

But todays (post 80's) jazz instrumentalists sound to me to be all about precision and accuracy with a few exceptions, not about improvisation and emotion. Today's jazz musicians sound like classical music players who switched to jazz.

Modern Jazz started a long time ago. Just consider that Coltrane died 53 years ago. When I hear the word modern, I think, NOW, but when it comes to Jazz, ’modern’ started a while back. So, the 50s and 60s were /  was / is Modern Jazz. The current stuff is mostly noise.(imho)

Cheers

Billy Child’s latest. He co leads Ravinia’s RMSI Master Class so he knows his way around ALL jazz. Grammy winner, Monterrey Jazz, Lincoln Center etc.
Besides, Scofield and MSW keep moving forward. Often together.
Among many others.
If you only like vinyl you are stuck listening to a finite conglomeration of "old" stuff.
Over and over.

Long-time Jazz listener. I love the old Blue Note (and similar-era) albums but my need to discover and listen to those has peaked. Same with 70’s fusion. Always searching and manage to find something, even post-80’s. But I’ll bet if I stratified my Jazz collection by decade the bulk of it would be from the 50’s to the 70’s. It’s easier to identify the things that have stood the test of time, as hindsight is 20/20. Some of the guys mentioned above - Scofield, Corea and Coltrane - have all done some things that are “out there” that would qualify as the dreaded “modern jazz.” The younger guys that play with Lloyd - and one day McBride & Redman (and Tom Harrell) - they will carry the torch and will be the ones to listen too. The point about sounding like classical players who switched to Jazz - applies to a lot of ECM stuff. Just some random thoughts I guess.

@rok2id 
Yes, you're right. I should say today's jazz. And as much as I appreciate Miles Davis he lost me at Bitches Brew. I've never been a big fan of Fusion Jazz either. I do like Weather Report though.