The Solo Retreats From the Spotlight in Jazz. “I’m

often left wondering how it is that solos — and especially

that theme-solos-theme format — became such a necessary

part of jazz. Not everybody solos particularly well, after all,

and the number of bona fide stars whom you’d always want

to hear solo, because you identify with them, is at an

all-time low. Sometimes — too often — solos make listening

to jazz drudgework yet are nevertheless applauded, when

the real strength of the piece lay in some other part of it.” [New York Times]