Thanks for your thoughts, slippery and Irv. I agree that soloist-based music necessarily brings the soloist to the forefront, and I'm totally OK with that. I guess it is just a personal preference. Bring the soloist to the front, but don't bury the rhythm and bass. Really it's the bass that bothers me more than the drums, in most cases. Drums, even recessed and far back in the soundstage, are sharp enough to get most of the detail - quality and evenness aside. But when the bass is underrecorded and recessed, sometimes I have trouble even making out the chord progressions, which is obviously an integral part of jazz improv. That's what really drives me crazy.
As a (less than talented) jazz trumpeter myself, hearing how a soloist responds to, juxtaposes against, and otherwise creatively uses chord progressions to influence riff selection is very interesting to me. Without that audible bass precision, sometimes it just sounds like a soloist with drums and a vaguely tuneful low background hum.