Sounds divine! If I'm ever in the US or you're in the UK we'll have to give it a go (even if I count myself as more of a rock chick really)

Actually, not mentioning Ellington was a big oversight on my part - I was thinking more of the Jazz players who came after WW2 who had some classical training (like Miles) or had played in Army bands.

As for folk music, I was going to mention Bartok, but as you already said, I decided there were too many examples to go into specifics. A great number of Russian composers borrowed heavily from folk music as well, I believe. In the development of modern music, the European folk music that crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers of the US sowed the seeds of a lot of it, especially once it got mixed up with the blues...