Jazz Recommendations

A previous poster mentioned Mark C.Gridley's jazz text;it has his top jazz recordings list and is a good overview of the subject.
Here are a few to get you started:
Early jazz--Louis Armstrong, hot 5/hot 7 recordings
Swing--Ellington,Live at Newport
Bop--Charles Parker,Ornithology
Hard Bop--John Coltrane,Giant Steps
Cool--Miles Davis,Kind of Blue
Modern--Bill Evans,Sunday Live at the Villiage Vanguard

The best place I've found to hear a wide variety of old and new jazz is Mainstream Jazz with Bob Parlocha. You can access it on jazz88fm.com. This is a public radio station in Minneapolis that plays mostly jazz.

Pieces of a Dream/Love's Silhouette

Incredible music and well recorded.

Kenny Garrett

just relistened to two classic jazz albums. Kenny Burrell's midnight blue and Sonny Clark's cool struttin'. Both excellent efforts from two fantastic artists.