I think you're right about Miles. I also think there are other jazz musicians who were still making vital music 40+ years on, but it's a little harder to see because jazz as a genre has receded from mainstream notice. There's also the factor that albums and live performances are generally more important than individual songs. But, still:…
I think you're right about Miles. I also think there are other jazz musicians who were still making vital music 40+ years on, but it's a little harder to see because jazz as a genre has receded from mainstream notice. There's also the factor that albums and live performances are generally more important than individual songs. But, still: there's forty years between Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles and The Joni Letters (which did get an Album of the Year nomination) and nearly 50 years between Ornette Coleman's Shape of Jazz to Come and his Pulitzer-prize winning Sound Grammar. Wayne Shorter and Paul Motian also come to mind as people who were seen as making vital music (and not just museum pieces) late in their careers, easily 40 years after their first breakthroughs.
I think you're right about Miles. I also think there are other jazz musicians who were still making vital music 40+ years on, but it's a little harder to see because jazz as a genre has receded from mainstream notice. There's also the factor that albums and live performances are generally more important than individual songs. But, still: there's forty years between Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles and The Joni Letters (which did get an Album of the Year nomination) and nearly 50 years between Ornette Coleman's Shape of Jazz to Come and his Pulitzer-prize winning Sound Grammar. Wayne Shorter and Paul Motian also come to mind as people who were seen as making vital music (and not just museum pieces) late in their careers, easily 40 years after their first breakthroughs.