More than ever, the contemporary jazz scene is as diverse as it is rich. The word “jazz” means so many different things to so many different people that it’s almost impossible to draw a bead on what it is. That’s exactly as it should be — the field would be boring if it ever became painless to define. Yet one thing that increasingly seems to be tying the various facets of the jazz world together this season is the idea of readdressing important music from the past in some sort of contemporary context.

Released last month, Joe Lovano’s “Streams of Expression,” on which the saxophonist plays a new treatment of the music of Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool” band from 1949, has set the tone for much of the best music to be heard in New York this fall.

In fact, even as this issue goes to press, two events remain this week in New York’s unofficial John Coltrane Festival — shows at the Blue Note with ‘Trane associates McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders, and at Birdland with Mr. Lovano. There is also time to catch the remaining two events in the Don Cherry series, which occupies a worthy subset of the third annual Festival of New Trumpet Music. This Saturday (September 23), Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra will re-examine Cherry’s 1973 “Relativity Suite.” The following night, the trumpeters Dave Douglas and Graham Haynes will play a more general program of Cherry’s small-group compositions at the Jazz Standard.

Jazz musicians tend to bring the past into the present in any of three ways. The classical approach, as it might be called, is how the Jazz at Lincoln Orchestra plays the music of Duke Ellington, which is theoretically similar to the way the New York Philharmonic plays Mahler — sticking for the most part to a preset score and trying to replicate the composer’s intentions. Drummer Ben Riley’s Thelonious Monk Legacy Band, which will play both Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (October 3) and Birdland (October 31), could be considered an example of this, since it’s about as faithfully Monk-ish as you can get — even without a piano. When composer Andrew Hill plays his own music from his 1969 “Passing Ships” (finallyreleased after 34 years) at Merkin Hall on November 14, it will surely bear the stamp of authenticity.

At the opposite end is your basic tribute show, such as the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars at the Blue Note (October 17–22), which probably won’t be a formal re-creation but a jam session on Gillespie tunes by former Gillespie associates. When the alumni are at the level of Slide Hampton, James Moody, and Paquito D’Rivera, that’s more than enough.

Likewise, when the Blue Note honors Ray Brown, with Christian McBride playing the great man’s role (with Benny Green, Russell Malone, and guest Dee Dee Bridgewater), the important thing will be to recreate the spirit of the late bass colossus.

The great majority of past-into-present productions lie somewhere in between these two poles. Among the shows I’m most eagerly awaiting in the next few months are two clarinet-oriented productions: the Ken Peplowski salute to Benny Goodman at Dizzy’s (November 21–26), and Don Byron’s interpretation of the music of blues and soul giant Junior Walker (October 11–15).

Another jazz-soul crossover will occur that same week when the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of New Orleans repurposes the classic Marvin Gaye album “What’s Going On” as an eco-political statement in the wake of Hurricane Katrina at B. B. King’s. Tenor saxist Bennie Wallace, who has played plenty of pop and soul music in his 35-year career, will honor the saxophone pioneer Coleman Hawkins two weeks later at the Standard (October 25–29).

Also high on the list of eagerly anticipated repertory concerts is Stefon Harris at Zankel Hall (October 18), where he’ll play selections from his outstanding “African Tarantella,” which consists of thoughtful new settings for two suites by Duke Ellington and one of his own. On November 30,the composer Gunther Schuller, who collaborated with Charles Mingus on several key projects, will conduct a program with the Mingus Big Band, which continues to appear at the Iridium on Tuesdays.Less ambitious but no less exciting is Birdland’s annual Django Reinhardt Festival, where Gypsy guitarists from all over Europe try to out-Django one another.

Yet not everything is repertory and recreation. There is no shortage of living masters out there who are not to be missed, starting with trumpeter-funster Clark Terry, who turns 86 this year, leading his own quintet at the Vanguard (September 26-October 1) and then guest-starring with the equally marvelous composer-saxist Jimmy Heath at his 80th birthday celebration at the Blue Note. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the avant-garde piano magician Cecil Taylor will bring his trio to Merkin Hall (October 12) and to the Iridium (October 26–27).

Meanwhile, the bassist and bandleader Dave Holland will present his long-running Quintet at Birdland (November 1–4) and also make a rare appearance as a guest star with his collaborator, the vibraphonist Steve Nelson, who in turn will star in a program of duets at Merkin with Mr. Holland and the pianist Mulgrew Miller (December 11).In another must-catch duet program, pianist Andre Previn is making one of his increasingly rare appearances in a New York club at the Blue Note with bassist David Finck.

From totally out of left field comes the trombonist Roswell Rudd, a Dixielander-turned-avant gardist, doing a concert at Zankel Hall on December 19 with the Mongolian Buryat Band (horsehead fiddle, flute, dulcimer, shaman drum, and voice) — go figure.Also entering the jazz-meets-world-music stakes will be the accomplished alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, whose new album, “Beyond the Wall,” offers his interpretation on the music and culture of China. He’ll play Birdland the first week in October (October 3–7).

Mr. Garrett, who is one of many current-generation players doing something worthy and interesting this fall, will be followed at Birdland by the highly entertaining Carter cousins — the saxophonist James Carter with his organ trio (October 11–14) and the violinist Regina Carter (October 18–21).

This very week, two first-rate contemporary pianists are in town: Fred Hersch at the Village Vanguard (until Sunday) and Eric Reed at Smoke (Friday and Saturday, September 22–23).

Smoke, on 106th Street, continues to be the uptown home of hard bop and soul jazz, the latter best represented in the long-running jazz organ series starring Mike LeDonne and the exciting, extroverted tenorist Jerry Weldon.

Finally, two of jazz’s most iconoclastic and entertaining characters are hitttown this fall: hipster supreme Mark Murphy at the Iridium (October 14–15) and bebop folkie Mose Allison, who will be playing New York twice in the same month (at Highlights in Jazz on November 9 and the Iridium on November 30), which must be a record.

Two of their progeny — and two of the most amusing pranksters on the contemporary scene — are also concertizing: the dazzling Kurt Elling (the Professor Harold Hill of jazz) will play Zankel on November 8 and John Pizzarelli Jr. will be at Highlights in Jazz with his trio and his father, Bucky Pizzarelli, on October 19 and with the Swing Seven at Birdland September 26–30. Thank goodness for Mr. Pizzarelli and Mr. Elling, who remind us that a sense of humor is not limited to jazzmen of Clark Terry and Mose Allison’s generation.