Jazz: Classified? Ossified?

I didn't make it to the International Association of Jazz Educators conference in New York this year, but just came across a blogger/radio DJ named Forrest Dylan Bryant who did. Here's a snippet I found interesting:

"I caught a research paper presentation on the topic of the 'classicization' of jazz. The concept of jazz as 'America's classical music' started way back in the 1930s, gained serious traction with the emergence of Wynton Marsalis and other neoclassicists in the 1980s, and today is almost a cliché. The author of the paper, Dr. Dave Kopplin of Cal Poly Pomona, explored the meaning and implications of that 'classical' tag, shared some interesting (if very preliminary) findings from a survey he's conducting, and suggested that 'conservative trends in music show a direct correlation with conservative trends in society.' Kopplin argued (or at least I inferred) that classicization gives jazz prestige and influence, but at the expense of growth and vitality as repertoires shrink to canonical tunes and standardized stylistic choices."

Amen.