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

@tyray 

Dunno that I'm any more eloquent than you on the topic of Jazz but thanks for your kind words.  

My first exposure to Gato was something similar... and so, I was quite surprised by what I heard when the needle dropped on the first Flying Dutchman release I'd gotten my hands on!  I do enjoy his note choices/melodic sense. It's just that "edge" that gets to me. But as I've grown older, my tolerance for such things has diminished. When I was young, it was the more "outside" the better. Now, I prefer more consonance. Life is "dissonant" enough!  

@jonwolfpell 

I suspect my transition into Jazz was made easier, having spent so much time listening to the Dead and the Allman Brothers. 

There have been several suggestions, including my own, for Brubeck's "Time Out" album which has the fantastic "Take Five" track.  I do agree that there are many Benny Goodman albums that display terrific music making and virtuosic playing.  I have some original six-eye Columbia stereo recordings from the late 1950's and early 1960's of Benny Goodman that are among the finest recordings that I have in terms of sound quality.  

I think there may have been some suggestion that certain types of jazz recordings are not sophisticated or demanding enough to be included in suggestions.  I don't think that is the case.  I often listen to simple, tuneful music that others would call easy listening.  So what if it is easy listening if it is simply beautiful?  In that category. I would suggest recordings by the Tord Gustavsen Trio.  These ECM recordings have the benefit of that label's consistently good engineering.  I would also suggest that one look for recordings of the pianist Geoffrey Keezer.

@stuartk Hold up! I’m a southern rock and roll freak! The Allman Brothers Whipping Post! With two drummers in the band?! Similar to James Brown’s band! Come on now! And dare I say Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mother’s Finest!? And I had forgotten about Gato's Flying Dutchman label releases, thanks!

It took me a long time to develop an ear for more esoteric jazz. My thing is the era after jazz died, and popular music (Doors, Hendrix, Cream, etc.) became the market. 

If I wanted to introduce somebody to jazz in an incremental way (there are so many different forms), I'd start with Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth. It is every bit as important, in my estimation, as Kind of Blue, but doesn't get the level of accolades that the Miles record does. I'm a huge fan of anything under the rubric of "spiritual" or "soul" jazz, but a lot of those records have gotten to be collectible and expensive. There is a remaster of Dream Queen that Bernie G. cut that is cheap and allegedly from the tape- the OG is a 4 figure record- it's lo-fi lounge music, but the title track is killer. Likewise, the track "Turiya and Ramakrishna" on Alice Coltrane's Ptah, the El Daoud, is stunning. The reissue is pulled from a digitized file, the OGs command beaucoup today.  If you like something fairly straightforward, try Art Pepper Today- a late record in his short life- the track Patricia, which was released three times, includes Cecil McBee, Roy Haynes and Stanley Cowell. Stunning performance, and the copy I have, an early Japanese pressing is quiet and extremely good sounding. 

I tend to go for small and private label jazz that is more obscure, but it took time for me to get to this-- it is a process of learning, and being accustomed to sounds that may at first seem cacophonous. Exposure allows you to develop an ear for this- one of the least popular Pharoah Sanders' releases-- self titled, on in the India Navigation label, did not sell well at the time, but OGs now command big money. It was reissued a couple years ago. 

To me, a lot of modern post-bop is a process of exploration. There's a lot of records out there. You just have to develop an ear for it and get engaged in the process of exploration. It's quite fun, though it has gotten expensive on vinyl. 

The classic Wayne Shorter Blue Note albums See No Evil, Juju and Adam’s Apple.

He played sax with Joni Mitchell and the sax solo on Aja. 

As a composer and player he’s so “lyrical” I can’t imagine any music lover not liking him.