But I think my interest in jazz (from all eras) is a reflection that rock is dead.
I was led to Jazz by "jazzy" Rock and by the fact that I grew bored with Rock's melodic and harmonic limitations. The liner noted in one of the many reissues of "Kind of Blue" mentioned that the Allman Bros.were avid fans of modal Jazz. Listening to them and the Dead seemed to ease the way for me into Jazz.
I don't tend to think of Rock as "dead" anymore than I regard Jazz as "dead". As long as there are recordings in these genres I enjoy, that's "alive" enough for me. I don't see where Rock could've gone. Punk attempted to drag it away from corporate slickness and Steely Dan probably took it as far in a Jazz direction as possible without it crossing over into Fusion.