Billie or Ella? Maria or Renata? Technique or feeling?

@rok2id 

"Jazz is a way of playing music."  ---   Jelly Roll Morton. (he should know)

Which means all of the first Jazz tunes, were not Jazz, when written, but played in a Jazz style later"

Yes! This is exactly what I was attempting to convey!  

barts -- I’m mightily impressed with your concert going. My parents saw Sinatra a couple times in Vegas. Sinatra at the Sands? I’m not quite sure. They did, however, take me and my sister to see Sammy Davis Jr. when he was in Vegas. In any case, their "con-oy-zer" selection of MOR is now in my hands.

@stuartk 

“You seem to be asserting that once jazz musicians tackle “songbook” material, they suddenly (in your mind) morph into something suspect, something lesser, something somehow not quite ‘legit’”

I neither asserted, nor even insinuated any such value judgement on jazz compositions or pop compositions.

I addressed a question in this thread regarding jazz singers.  I am not sure how to define such, as jazz seems to be dominated by instrumental music, and artists’ catalogs like those of Holiday, Fitzgerald, Vaughn, etc. are so heavily populated with pop songs of the ‘20s-‘50s. I don’t see how my language betrayed anything derisive regarding those incredible songs. 
I am, and have been for a long time, a deep lover of those songs. My piano playing over the last year has increased noticeably via my constant digging in to those very songs.  This music is less intimidating to take on as a player than Sergei Rachmaninoff’s or Thelonius Monk’s, but still challenging and simply a joy to study and play. I just love them, and love being able to actually play them now with something that resembles competence.  I am, and always have been, a ravenous, insatiable pop guy.

I consider jazz to be that singular, unique, original music of Parker, Gillespie, Davis, Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, Roach, we could go on and on, and further on into the ‘60s and ‘70s, Coleman, Taylor, Art Ensemble of Chicago, I could go on.  I really get excited by the music of those last three, plus Don Cherry, Roland Kirk, again, I could go on.  
That’s my take.

@tylermunns the songs of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. These are some of the greatest pop songwriters in history, but not what I would call jazz.

Substitute jazz for country + Broadway for rock n roll = You call it jazz, I call it bad Broadway. Sam does get to it after 5 minutes  in case you want to skip ahead.

The Geezenzlaws swinging out on a rope. That would be one of those things which seen cannot be unseen.

@chowkwan 

I love that show!  When Glen sings “Gentle on my Mind” and kicks the buh-jeesuz out of the guitar solo, it’s sooooo fantastic!

Is that Jerry Jeff on the far left, in the blue shirt and black hat?