Miles Davis,extreme Jazz and the death of Jazz

Ozfly, good observation. Appreciation/absorbtion of innovation does usually seem to lag way behind the work produced by artists who are outside of the mainstream. The (inaccutate) assertion that interesting and challenging music is not being made bears this out. The best releases by the artists listed below may not print in the brain easily, but can deliver big high quality intoxication to the attentive listener:
Tim Berne
Blast
Vincent Courtois
Andrew Cyrille
Jean Derome
Dave Douglas
Gerry Hemingway
Achim Kaufmann
Kollektiv
Jon Lloyd
Massacre (Fred Frith)
Mario Pavone
Ruins
Louis Sclavis
Thinking Plague
Henry Threadgill
Tipographica
Universe Zero
Ken Vandermark
Nils Wogram
X Legged Sally

Like F.Z. said, " It's *#!%[@ to be alive"

check out Evan Parker, a british sax player, part of the 'free improvisation' movement (mostly european) from way back but who has recently matured into a truly innovative (and finally listenable) artist. Look for: Solar Wind, Breaths and Heartbeats, Obliquities, and Drawn Inward.
I would also recommend The Art Ensemble of Chicago's late 60's into early 70's work. This stuff is being rereleased now for a good reason - their stuff is incredibly creative and the musicianship is astounding (I think their bassist is one of the best ever)
And don't forget to wade into the humongous Sun Ra catalog - his sax player, John Gilmore, is one of the greatest ever. He never pursued a solo career (which he could have anytime he chose) because of his loyalty to Sun Ra (RIP) himself.
The best jazz has always been challenging to the status quo. If it sounds 'difficult', that may just mean you need to stretch your mind a little. Somewhere along the line, jazz became background music, makeout music, etc. Fortunately, the abundance of small labels and ease of self-producing CDs is keeping interesting music alive and vital. You just need to seek it out!

I'm not a jazz scholar but here goes. Miles Davis worked with the best musicians available-including those who inovated. He and Gil Evans invented cool. He worked with Bill Evans in the modern idiom and Coltrane in the Hard Bop idiom.
But special attention should go to Wayne Shorter. Shorter wrote and arranged hard bob stuff for Blakey andthe Messangers. His worked with Davis-Hancock-Carter-Williams mainly on Nefertiti was the beginning of a new style. Then he helped invent fussion with the first three weather report albums.
So yes,I'd say shorter is a post (as well as pre) Davis inovator.

The nature of Jazz is to be an evolving, cutting edge type of art form. Thus, it cannot remain in any status-quo for long, and remain true to its nature. I agree with many of the above statements about later Jazz artists. Some are great, like Shorter, Pastorius, Zawinul, Doldinger, groups like Passport, Brand X, Weather Report, etc.. Some are what was called "Fuzak"(fusion muzak?) in one of the posts above. A great description, to whoever coined that one. One of the characteristics of Jazz is that it is out-of-the-mainstream and you have to look for the great artists. Creativity is still alive and kicking.

I am not a jazz scholar either, but would certainly agree that jazz is far past it's golden age, with the 'critical mass' date hovering somewhere around 1974. In recent years, it seems that some interesting stuff has been happening however. This is, of course, overwhelmed by a blanket of overproduced and overmarketed artists and the burden of the 'fuzak' scene to some degree. Some of the folks involved with the AACM collective seem to be producing some intriguing music. I picked up a disc recently by the Ernest Dawkins New Horizons Ensemble that is farily astounding. Henry Threadgill is still producing very innovative music in most of his guises and just about anything that Kahil El'Zabar produces as a solo artist, in collaboration or with the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is fairly crucial music. I have a few discs that Randy Weston did in the mid to late '90's that are quite excellent as well. If you are into free jazz, there still seems to be quite a bit of activity and vital music in this scene currently happening. It requires careful digging, but it seems that quite a bit is still happening, even if we're not able to strut into the Village Vanguard to witness some of the bop-era greats laying down serious grooves as they did in the days of yore. Suffice to say, I haven't given up hope yet!