Totally agree with you. Excellent answer. Vijay most of all with the theory/math. I sat through a lecture he gave on ragas in jazz once, and it was essentially a math class about ragas.
That must have been awesome! I was lucky enough to see Vijay & Wadada in Chicago last year. Indian music is crazy/complex/awesome - I learned a tiny bit about it when learning about Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time."
It was so boring. North and South Indian music is wonderful-I love it. But hearing Vijay break that down was mind-numbing. I like some of his music. Wadada can be great too! But I really wish we could stop justifying jazz by the labor it takes to produce/understand it. I need a break from jazz versions of Radiohead and Hendrix tunes as well. This trend is heralding the content crisis I'm afraid.