I'm glad to see a thread like this. I have only started listening to jazz, and I am also lost as to where I should be looking. I will have to go back and read the thread in detail and pick up what I can.

At the moment I'm sampling Bill Evans, Miles Davis & Charles Mingus. I am just checking through various videos on youtube, and clicking at random through the recommended links. Haven't had a chance to explore the genre too deeply yet.

Check out the Vijay Iyer, Aaron Goldberg, Mike Pride, Grant Green, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and maybe some Mahivishnu Orchestra. I'm just starting to get more into jazz myself so I don't have an exceptionally long list of names at my disposal.

are you a musician? I believe jazz to be a musician's music. It's great if you can enjoy it without any musical training, however.

Screw that don cherries rockem sockem techno is way better

Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come is pretty good and ahead of its time.

Has anyone else noticed how this thread has 55 posts, but isn`t really getting any closer to an answer ? Maybe it`s because the question is rather like asking, "To enjoy this bowl of cereal, which cornflake should I eat first?"

Despite that, I`d like to suggest yet another point of entry into Jazz: start historically.
Here, for instance, is a Jelly Roll Morton recording made in 1926:-



I`d be interested to hear other people`s candidates for "The first jazz record ever ".

Miles & Monk at Newport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A total gem of an album. Very conventional yet free enough to show the rock listener the advantages of the jazz formula.

Plus a good entry point for two of Jazz's greatest, and a personal favorite listen of mine.

Start with jazz fusion

Brand X
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Santana (Caravanserai album)
Weather Report

this is a list of essentials i compiled on another board:-

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Giant Steps
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and Sinner Lady
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
Mahavishnu Orcgestra - Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew or On the Corner (if you're adventurous enough)

i'd throw in Return to Forever's Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Weather Report's debut (not the same name one from 1981) and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters

Not sure if these have been mentioned, but Albert Alyer's "Spiritual Unity", Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch!", "A Love Supreme" John Coletrane, and "Change of the Century" by Ornette Coleman