Having an ear for Jazz

I had 25 years,was in London,and on one market heard some Jamaican guys listening to a casette tape on their radio,music was full of organ rythm, kind a dirty but with great guitar moments,sounded so exciting,like nothing I have heard before.It was my first encounter with great Jimmy Smith,and the rest followed naturally,looking who played some insrument on some record,than finding it,than discovering some new musicians,who again played with some other great players and so on.By that time I already had a quite big record collection that spanned from blues,sixties rock,bay area late 60's period,to a hard rock of seventies,german psychodelia and progressive rock and punk,with just a few interesting bands of eighties.Since than,and it was in 1998,I bought no other but jazz album,and still I feel like there are thousands of albums that I still must hear,and they are all from a relatively short period between 1955 and 1970,at the most.I still have all my records,but at home I listen only to jazz,aldo i like to hear some good rock music on the radio or in a car

To the thread starter,

You have described my sutuation to a tee.

I began listening to music (rock, pop, soul, gospel, blues) when I was given a transistor radio at age 11 ("Cool Jerk", Working in a Coal Mine", "Devil with a Blue Dress On"). By 15 I began listening to jazz with one of my first rock album purchases, Edgar Winter's "Entrance". Same time frame I began playing in my high school jazz band, so was also heavily influenced by my jazz performing teacher. Since then my appreciation of jazz and rock has grown. One has not replaced the other. I've never appreciated "noisy sounding music", whether it was rock, jazz, or any other genre.

I grew up in the 60's so my listening was always classic rock, blues, folk.
I dabbled in jazz, listening to all the more easy listening jazz artists.
The more I listened the more adventurist I got.
About 3 years ago, I went on the interent and googled
the top 50 jazz albums of all time.
I made a point of buying the top ten.
I am a confirmed jazzaholic now.
Miles Davis, Coltrane, Monk, Oscar Peterson.
I still have a great love for the stuff I grew up with too.
I feel sorry for music listeners who never venture out to appreciate other types of music.
They are missing out on some exciting wonderful music and great artists.
Glen

There used to be a New Age radio station in Chicago back in the 80’s. I know that New Age music isn’t the subject here, but for me, it served as a bridge the day I met an older gentleman in an Audio shop. In the course of conversation, and he asked me about my musical interests. I mentioned jazz was among my interests and he told me we had something in common. As I rolled down the list of New Age jazz that I liked, he had the most amused look on his face. He wound up inviting me to his home for a listening session, and it was there that I got my real introduction to jazz. He and his friends were a big part of the Chicago jazz scene starting in the 50s. Their stories are almost as good as the music.