Help Where to start with jazz?????

If you haven't already, read the entire "Jazz Recommendations" thread at the top of this page. Oh, and don't forget Art Pepper or Dinah Washington. :-)

When I began exploring jazz I liked the following:
Miles Davis - "Kind Of Blue", "Sketches Of Spain"
Dave Brubeck - "Time Out"
Bill Evans Trio - "Waltz For Debbie", "Sunday At The Village Vangard", "Everybody Digs Bill Evans"
Ella Fitzgerald - "Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie"
Coleman Hawkins - "Night Hawk"
Sonny Rollins - "Way Out West", "Saxophone Colossus"
Art Pepper - "Meets The Rhythm Section", "Plus Eleven"
John Coltrane - "Blue Train"
Gene Ammons - "Blue Gene"
Louis Armstrong - "Satchmo Plays King Oliver"
Count Basie - "88 Basie Street"

The above are only a mix, but they give you a taste of different styles, vocals, piano trios, sax quartets and quintets and, in the case of "Sketches of Spain", jazz arranged to include an orchestra.

Here are some representative works from each of the periods.

Early Jazz--Louis Armstrong Hot Five or Hot Seven recordings.

Swing--Ellington,Live at Newport.

Bop--Charles Parker,Ornathology

Cool--Miles Davis,Kind of Blue

Hard Bop--Coltrane,Giant Steps

Modern--Bill Evans,Sunday Afternoon at the Vanguard.

Mark C. Gridley wrote a one volume jazz history that is an excellent read,much better than most textbooks. He includes lists of recordings.

For starters I'd recommend educating yourself by viewing something like the Ken Burns Jazz series, which you can probably rent. It's not perfect, but there is a huge range of jazz styles and so many performers. And This will give you an idea of the how the syles developed.

In a similar vein to PBB's suggetion above, I highly recommend Leornard Berstein's - Bernstein on Jazz. This recording features Bernstein talking about what to listen for in Jazz. It also includes separate performances with Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck. I only recently came across this gem, after 7+ years of heavy Jazz listening. It's still not too late for me to learn from it, and I strongly recommend it to those just getting started.