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green medicine

I'm a Jazz musician in San Francisco., although I also play blues, funk, reggae, latin and african guitar styles.
I also work at Pandora.com which is a great way to listen to stuff you may like. You should check it out, it's free.

All the suggestions above are great! I'd like to make a few:
Lee Morgan
Cannonball Adderley
Grant Green
Hank Mobley
Larry Young
Joe Henderson
Herbie Hancock
Hampton Hawes
Wes Montgomery
Jimmy Smith
Dexter Gordan
Bill Evans
Horace Silver

There is so much great stuff out there. Every era is a little different. My suggestions are mostly from the Hard-Bop era roughly 1955-65. I also love listening to Nat King Cole's trio for a more pop/vocal style jazz. It's safe to say I like instrumental jazz more than vocal jazz. Have fun and happy listening!

 

nezer

Get a Sirius sat. radio if in the US. Channel 72 is seriously happening.

Personally, I go for hard bop stuff like Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet (Charlie Rouse is seriously under-rated, IMHO), Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon. I also dig the many bands with the Herbie Hancock/Wayne Shorter pairing. Their collective genus is impressively complementary.

For starters, I second the Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." I don't see how it's possible to not like that record. Same goes for Dave Brubeck's "Time Out."

But, jazz encompasses so many eras and styles it's possible to really like bebop but not care for swing. I know a lot of cats that really dig Coltrane but think Count Basie sounds lame. I also know cats that are exactly the opposite. Just like both the Beatles and Korn might be generically labeled "Rock" they have very little in common. Eras and styles in jazz can be equally drastic but still be considered "jazz."

5drive

There's a lot of different sounding music that's generally labeled as jazz. The artists listed by green medicine are solidly in the jazz genre. No one will argue that those guys are anything but jazz artists. You also have what's called 'smooth jazz' and there are radio stations that play nothing but this pop oriented stuff. A lot of it is just pop music with a guitar or sax standing in for lead vocals. I don't dislike all smooth jazz nor do I like all the traditional jazz greats. And it can be difficult to find the particular jazz flavor you like. I like streaming audio services for finding new artists I may like. I use pandora.com. They're free if you want to put up with some ads and $3/month without ads. They have a huge database of sound types and it makes it easy to find similar artists. You can create 'stations' from one artist and they'll play other artists with similar styles.

This is a huge jazz weekend for me and my wife. We're going to see the Pat Metheny Trio tonight. He's one of the premier jazz guitarists and one of my favorites. Then tomorrow night we've got great seats for the Regina Carter Quintet. She's classically trained and is now one of the great jazz violinists.

Zaireeka

I definitely second Pandora.com, I've discovered so many new artists through that site. It's definitely one of the best music streaming sites available on the internet.

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green medicine

It's a great company to work for!! (re: pandora) In all my years as a musician this is the most perfect support job I've ever had. I can tour whenever I need to, and work from home. Chances are you've already listened to hundreds of songs that I personally listened to, and analyzed to be entered into the system. And it's one of the coolest products out there.

Btw, there's a Grant Green record I have on vinyl I pulled out to listen to yesterday.

Grant Green - Solid
I highly recommend it! Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, James Spaulding, Elvin Jones, and Bob Cranshaw.

 

loki

I just recently heard Charles Mingus for the first time, and he is really talented. I'll probably buy something of his soon, thanks for mentioning your recommended albums.
I also love Karl Denson. I saw the karl denson trio live about two months ago. I was hearing them for the first time and I was expecting them to be alright, but they were much more impressive than "alright". It was a great time.

green medicine

Ah-Um! is a great Mingus record to start with. He was a tremendous musician, composer, and arranger.
Another great record with Mingus on it is Money Jungle with Duke Ellington and Max Roach.
Or
The Quintet - Live at Massy Hall (Mingus, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Max Roach) another classic!

There is also a book, an "auto" biography called Beneath The Underdog.. great reading.
and a documentary about him, but I don't recall the name of it.

Karl Denson is great! He would fall more into the Funk/Acid Jazz area than straight ahead Jazz.
Although I'm sure he is quite capable of playing some straight ahead Jazz too.
I'm in a band called Swoop Unit, which is very much in the same style as KD or Tower of Power.

5drive

There seem to be two Mingus documentaries. The first, "Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968"-

"Footage from various club dates punctuated by poetry and all of it woven with Tom Reichman filming Mingus and his daughter during the final moments before they are evicted from the Manhatten studio where Mingus hoped to build a new jazz school. Yes, Charles is upset." Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968 (1968)

The 2nd was "Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog" - directed by Don McGlynn and released in 1998. Both are available on DVD.

vern

For my groove class we have to play along with Diana Krall's "I don't know enough about you." We have to set up all the hits that the band plays and play "In 2" and in normal 4 swing. We had to write a chart out for it as well. I used to be all about rock but jazz is so open for expression and creativeness.

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5drive

Yep. I've always liked different kinds of music, but I'm at the point now where I want to listen to artists who color outside the lines-music from the soul.