I've always struggled a bit with the "jazz" label. For those who love jazz, it's okay. But for the majority of people it's a nebulous term at best. More often than not, to the general populace (like it or not), the knee jerk response to the term jazz is "I don't like it". When putting on a show, one of the struggles performers face is reaching/winning over the audience we have. Prior to that, another struggle is attracting that audience in the first place. I don't mind using the jazz term in front of an audience. I'm sometimes less comfortable using it as a description before the fact. But what other term is there? It is, in fact, the correct term to define what I do. I most often play tunes associated with the jazz vocabulary. I'm spontaneous and take to improvised flights of fancy. I'll converse (musically) with anyone on stage with me, to the best of my ability. All of this connects with audiences. And depending on who is in the audience, I may hear my favorite response of all: "I don't like jazz, but I like you." or "I didn't know I liked jazz", or some variation on the theme. 
When I describe myself as jazz, I'm prone to qualify it with the word "classic". My connection to jazz connects me to the historic classical literature, as this is the vocabulary which informs it, particularly (for me) up to the Impressionistic era. The connection to classic jazz also connects me to popular music, at least in concept. In the "classic" jazz era, in large regard, jazz WAS popular music. And even though I'm not a heavy ragtime player, I'll sometimes throw that word out and have fun with a Scott Joplin tune or two, particularly when performing the cruise shows, if I'm in need of another descriptive term.
Ultimately,I just want to play and let the connections happen. It's the words leading up to the performance that can be the most challenging part of the process.