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

@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?

There's bop, bip bop, bebop, rebop, hard bop, post bop, Cowboy BeBop and even BeBop Deluxe.  What does it ll mean except that it's all music.

As the great trumpeter said, “I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.”

@tylermunns You are alright if you like country. For those unaware of what @tylermunns is talking about:

I do believe the gentleman you're talking about is not Jerry Jeff but Waylon. Y'know I just purely cannot resist.