Jim, you scrutinised and came to something "spledidly true," how is it that does not reveal "essential correctness" then? Playing the devil's advocate, why is "(not) getting" what Larry meant with his Mobley passage different from (not) getting this passage by Ratliff? Both are not examples of lucid writing (sorry Larry... ). Either you get it, or you don't and you need to think a lot in between too. And if you don't get what Larry wrote, it's all a bunch of hooey, just like Ratliff's is. Ask Dan.
Larry, cutting the man some slack, the passage could as well translate to something more like that the "best" in jazz combines all sorts of influences to a coherent whole. Not necessarily something I would support with my life, but reading other writings it's not too exotic either -- some even pander it as a definition and/or origins of the idiom. And certainly not as absurd as you claim it to be.
BTW & to underline, I am not saying that I understand what the hell Ratliff is saying here.