
by Seth Rogovoy (GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., February 24, 2002) –Avant-garde jazz is typically thought of to be difficult listening: cerebral, noisy, disquieting. And often it is. Mainstream jazz, on the other hand, is these days most often encountered as “America’s classical music,” with all the consequent starchiness that implies: dignity, formality, studiousness. Both, of course,…