>Does good jazz consist of, comparatively speaking, the most
>experienced (in both technique and improvisatory practice)
>players around, playing with the most freedom and will to
>create something that is at once unique, complicated and
>beautiful?

I was trying to think of a way to articulate what I felt and you nailed it. The key factor is improvisation, and improvisation done in such a way that allows the music to become the background for the expression. The integral part is in the improvisation. When I listen to jazz, I hear many voices, some of pain, some of joy, some of suffering, and there is a pronounced pitch that is bursting, screaming, and shining through the instruments. I hear the player, and through the player I hear the voices of a generation. The instruments become the vessel which the soul/spirit speaks through.

The technical skill coupled with the improvisation is like experiencing something akin to an ocean wave crashing down on a shore. It is wild, crazy, and loud, and yet, there is a multitude of patterns which compose the seeming chaos. It is raw and unbridled.

When I speak of sophistication I am not referring to a perfect order of notes, or a perfect arrangement which has been thought out and carefully constructed. I don't think that is sophistication but mechanization.