Certainly some of my favorite recordings are from this period, but by excluding the peak artistic/production years of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday those years by definition cannot be considered the most definitive jazz years. That's assuming any time period can be classified in that manner.
It's ironic that during this time period you had the rise of "youth culture" and the demise of jazz as America's popular music. At one point jazz was pop music. Swing bands fronted by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, etc. were the stars of their generation. As bop and later hard bop distanced itself from danceability and stopped being an easy listening experience, jazz became a niche musical product. While I and others may love what jazz became, Chuck Berry was right.
It's ironic that during this time period you had the rise of "youth culture" and the demise of jazz as America's popular music. At one point jazz was pop music. Swing bands fronted by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, etc. were the stars of their generation. As bop and later hard bop distanced itself from danceability and stopped being an easy listening experience, jazz became a niche musical product. While I and others may love what jazz became, Chuck Berry was right.