Jazz listening: Is it about the music? Or is it about the sound?

If it’s not about the music. You don’t actually appreciate jazz. Stick to Kenny G

@whart , You forgot Ornette Colman! You might also like Henry Threadgill, another genius. Try to fine, "Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket." "Too Much Sugar for a Dime," is also a great record. His recent stuff is morphing into neoclassical. In Just the Facts there is this female celloist who pulls off this amazing solo. 

Anton99, You listen to jazz and classical alone because most people won't listen to it. My wife will tolerate old Trane and Davis records or the like. I put on "The Art Ensemble of Chicago" and she will puke. She will listen to the Professors solo stuff.  

@mijostyn--don’t listen to Ornette C. much- the record I have to hand featuring him is like 4 people playing 5 different songs simultaneously, but I can look at some of his other works, along with Mr. Threadgill (same last name as a old time club owner down here that was Janis Joplin’s sort of shelter from the storm in her early days). Check out Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum, track title: "The Foreigner," which is up on YouTube. Sadly the record goes for big bucks when you can find a copy-- it is going to be reissued soon. Cecil McBee is on it, along with Carlos Garnett. Another favorite is Jothan Callins, Winds of Change- private label. Callins played bass and worked with Sun Ra, but here he is playing trumpet, Cecil M on bass (again).
I guess the space I’m in is between complete cacophony and melody- I don’t mind excursions that are out there, but I do like to come back to a riff, a melody or something familiar to ground the piece. It’s all worth a listen, at least once. And some of the less accessible stuff I will come back to; I guess it’s all relative in terms of your tolerance for "out thereness." By degrees, I guess my palate for more wild, untethered material has expanded through listening and exposure. Sun Ra is pretty beyond my normal range of stuff, some of the free jazz players from the West Coast scene also played more spiritual jazz or soul jazz (to put a label on it): Nate Morgan was a very strong piano player who was loosely affiliated with Horace Tapscott, but released a few records on his own (in addition to doing pop work to pay the bills, like Chaka Khan).
I find the back stories, and history of these guys (and women, there, more blues than jazz though there are some strong players today) fascinating.

It should always be about the music. If you want great sound too attend a live performance it’s a lot cheaper than a system that will give an approximation. Then again I think there are lots of people in this hobby who are more sound lovers than music lovers 
I am reminded of one individual who was bragging to myself that his exceptional and expensive system was so good you could actually hear the subway passing by under symphony hall on one recording of the BSO
to which I replied “yah but who would want to”