Tradition?

While reading an article by educational philosopher E.D. Hirsch for a class, I saw a link for an interview with neo-traditionalists Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch. The conservative monthly The American Enterprise published a themed issue titled, "Tradition: Who Needs It?" back 1997. I should probably give Marsalis and Crouch some slack because the interviewer definitely had an agenda in mind, but it's hard to ignore stuff like this:

TAE: What happens to musicians who reject tradition or want to run away from it, terrified of ever sounding like anyone else?
MR. MARSALIS: I don’t think that many do that.
MR. CROUCH: I’ve never heard anybody sound like that. I’ve heard people say that. I remember in the ’70s when I was around a lot of guys who were involved in the Lower East Side, and I would go hear them on their jobs, and they would be squeaking. But when I went by their house, they would have Charlie Parker on or Duke Ellington. They would never be listening to anything like what they play. I’d say, "Oh, now they want to enjoy some music."

I don't think they're giving much credit to the "squeaking" musicians. Crouch's comment implies that an innovator can't respect and enjoy the masters when the masters themselves were innovators at one point. Anthony Braxton touches on this in Forces In Motion with his linear idea of reconstructualism.

Oh, and here's a good interview with Sonny Rollins and David S. Ware in All About Jazz.