By MICHAEL E. ROSS

if you want a clear sign of the prospects for the future of jazz, consider the recent concert in which members of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and other musicians rewrote -- literally -- some of jazz history, performing their own interpretations of compositions written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. One of the musicians aiding and abetting this revisionist act was four years old when Ellington died, in 1974. That same musician, a saxophonist of impressive range, is being hailed as the next torchbearer of the bedrock traditions of jazz, traditions that preceded his existence by more than a generation.

His name is James Carter, and he is one of several other young musicians, like saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who are giving jazz fans hope for the future of the music. Like much of America, jazz is in a mood for retrenching, for returning to older, reliable verities. Young players routinely commit the classics to memory; hair is shorter, clothes more conservative; and throughout the music world, there's an embrace of the look, the repertoire, the attitude, and the instrumentation of jazz music's past.

Carter is the real deal. The depth and power of his playing is apparent on "The Real Quietstorm," his recently released album on Verve/Antilles. From the moment you hear his rich, smoky, assured baritone saxophone on the melody of " 'Round Midnight," you realize that this youthful product of Detroit has an authority, grace and grasp of the subtleties of improvisation that belie his 25 years of age.

Redman, not much older than Carter, has likewise made powerful statements on his albums "Wish" and "MoodSwing" (both Warner Bros.). Unlike Carter, who has primarily reinterpreted the classics on record, Redman has come to the fore as a composer, borrowing from the sturdiest jazz traditions to propel his quartet. Both men are passionate, gifted players calling on special reserves. You can't get this out of a book, or all the practice in the world. It flows from some deeper reservoir (maybe the same one Mozart tapped into as a youth).

Jazz has long been considered an outsider's music, but with its international popularity the notion of outsider has taken on wider dimensions, much to the consternation of fans of another stellar musician.

Rubalcaba, the Cuban pianist who performed with Dizzy Gillespie in the mid '80s, brings an outsize talent to "Imagine: Gonzalo Rubalcaba in the USA" (Somethin' Else/Blue Note), a recent album that showcases his prodigious talent. Since the mid-'80s Rubalcaba has been playing, mostly with his own band, Grupo Projecto, wedding a small-group jazz sound to classical motifs and Latin rhythms, a fiery amalgam that has been easier to come by on disc than in person.

Political tensions between Cuba and the United States complicated Rubalcaba's introduction to American audiences. In 1985, a presidential proclamation banned him and other musicians paid by the Cuban government from appearances in the U.S. American fans had to make do with Rubalcaba's appearance, with Dizzy Gillespie, in the film "A Night in Havana." Finally, in May 1993, Rubalcaba was admitted to the United States, performing at Lincoln Center in New York City - a bittersweet occasion, marking the passing of Gillespie, who had died a few months earlier.

Rubalcaba, 33 years old, no doubt never intended to be a point man in the cultural free-fire zone where art and politics collide. He's focused on the music, but for all his concentration on the various traditions his music invokes, what Rubalcaba represents -- artistic freedom, it's not overreaching to say -- has as much to do with the future as with the past.

Carter, Redman and Rubalcaba are in the vanguard of younger players who have come to dominate jazz in the '90s, a group that is part of a broader shift in the world of jazz, a sort of ninth wave. Cyrus Chestnut, Jacky Terrasson, Christian McBride, Geri Allen, Roy Hargrove, Danilo Perez and several others embody the cornerstone of the jazz ethos: improvisation anchored to an enduring, living tradition.

It's one thing, however, to borrow from a tradition, and another to enlarge on it. For all the admirable attention paid to their musical forebears, what remains to be seen is how well these driven tyros make their mark on jazz, and whether these young talents extend the language of jazz not solely by adopting the postures of the pantheon and returning to the comfortable fixtures of the past, but also by revealing something to carry into the future.

They're off to a good start. Other forward thinking musicians - Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Henry Threadgill, Terence Blanchard, Us3, Courtney Pine and many more - are also where jazz is heading. With such players in place, the next jazz generation is on its way to finding its own voice, future giants standing on the shoulders of those of the past.

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Michael E. Ross is an essayist and critic now living in New York City, at work on a novel. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, Essence, Emerge, Konch, the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.