Jazz is more popular than it has been since the early sixties. Every major record label is bringing out jazz reissues and new releases, and dating couples are turning up in the jazz clubs alongside the usual middle-aged male fans. But this popularity comes at a cost: Jazz has become identified with its past, and especially with bebop, the style that first dominated the jazz scene in the forties and fifties.

Bebop started out as a daring departure from the conventions of swing, but ironically, many listeners and musicians now experience this style as a comfortable orthodoxy that defines the limits of jazz.

In his third collection of essays, Francis Davis shares his insights into this new jazz mainstream: the greatness of its sources, the sterility of performance that follows those sources too closely. He also conveys his listening experiences beyond the mainstream - from the futuristic jazz of the avant-garde to the pre-forties styles that some performers continue to develop, at the risk of being labeled old hat.

Finally, Davis leaves behind the boundaries of jazz altogether, pursuing its adventurous spirit into a broader musical territory that includes musical theatre, rock, and rap.