IIRC Alyn Shipton's A New History of Jazz has a chapter or at least a section on postmodernism in jazz.
The term postmodern often comes to mind when I listen to the British reedman Alan Barnes. Alan, now in his 50s, is the product of a jazz studies course and continues to be active in jazz education. He is something of a walking encyclopedia of jazz history - though he tries his best to conceal this beneath a semi-comic exterior - and his solos are littered with quotes from a wide variety of jazz sources. Stylistically he's something of a chameleon - you hear Hodges, Benny Carter, Bird, Art Pepper, Paul Desmond. On clarinet he sometimes plays in a Goodman-style trio with vibes and drums.
All this, of course, is totally different from the position and characteristics of jazz musicians when I was listening to the music around 1960. Modernist would be the term to describe those players: part of the avant-garde, each moved on from the past and forged a new style. Their approach was serious, and there was no ironic dipping into past styles, which before the advent of jazz studies courses were less well known to them.