Bireli Lagrene, Scott Hamilton and George Benson have all said they don't really read music.

It's definitely true that most jazz musicians can read passably, but my original point was that it's an aural tradition. no one learns to play jazz reading notes off a page. Whereas in western classical music, it's an essential skill.

agree that probably all currently popular jazz musicians read music, but is this necessarily an improvement?

https://www.amazon.com/Erroll-Garner-One-Hear-Read/dp/B00AZ4...