Can you recommend Jazz for some one that doesn't like Jazz?


Let me explain, I have tried to like jazz for over 30 years. I rarely find something I like. To me it sounds too disjointed, like everyone is trying to out do the others and they are all playing a different song. I know there has to be some good instrumental smooth jazz artists I am missing. If you have any suggestions of whom to try let me know. Some that are on my Jazz playlist is Pat Metheny-"It's for you"   Bill Frisell _"Heard it through the grapevine"  Holly Cole, George Benson... for an example of things I do like.

 

I'd love to have a 100 song Jazz playlist. So what'ch got for me?

Thanks

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The suggestion to get a guidebook on jazz recordings is the way to go.  A book like the All Music Guide to Jazz not only lists most of the major artists and their recordings, it has a decent rating of each recording so you can sample the best. 

The recommendation of the Ken Burns documentary series is also very good because it places the music in a social and historical context and employs narrators who know and love the subject and convey what the music means to them.  The series is long but it is rewarding.  The biggest problem for me was that the series stopped well short of covering what would have been at that time current jazz artists and their music; it was mostly ancient history then, and more so ancient history now.

If you want to hear a decent cross section of jazz development at a particular time, and appreciate how advanced jazz performance was quite a whiles back, sample the top recordings from just one year--1959.  Three giant recording came out that year:  Miles Davis "Kind of Blue," Dave Brubeck "Time Out" and Ornette Coleman "Shape of Jazz to Come."  Of these three, my favorite is "Shape of Jazz to Come."  

If you have an internet radio tuner there are hundreds of jazz stations to sample various types of music.  A lot of us like different forms [not hard to tell that].  Lee Ritenour is an excellent guitarist a is Peter Frampton  [yes indeed] "Fingerprints" or "Frampton forgets. the words".  

I'm surprised that no one has complimented stuartk for his thoughtful and detailed response!  The first albums that really drew me into jazz were Kind Of Blue (Miles Davis, already mentioned) and Giant Steps (John Coltrane).  Louis Armstrong (Satch Plays Fats) is another easy recommendation!

I only started listening to Jazz this year. Spotify is your friend. Currently, I'm listening to "70's Japanese Jazz/Funk" playlist. Don't like a song, click next. Like a song, I save to a playlist. Never heard of any of these artists, just the way I prefer vs the same handful of Jazz artists always listed.