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

Very melodic jazz/blues artist that I love is Gene Harris. He was a fantastic pianist with his own style and his Quartet recordings often had Ray Brown on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums. He also recorded several Big Band albums in the style of Count Basie. Diana Krall is a modern sultry pianist/vocalist that has a very large audience appeal. For contemporary "cool jazz" I recommend the Rippingtons, Peter White, Richard Elliot and David Benoit.

It sounds like what you like is composition, through-composition. Nothing wrong with that. The most extreme version of the jazz you are not into as much would be free jazz, starting, say, at the beginning of the 60s. But there are many jazz composers who incorporate the shift to modal progressions (as opposed to standard blues progressions, pentatonic scales, etc) in the 1950s. Try the collaborations between Miles Davis and Gil Evans (Porgy and Bess; Sketches of Spain), Evans' Out of the Cool, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones, Oliver Nelson (Blues and the Abstract Truth), or Lalo Schiffrin.  I wouldn't turn my nose up at John Barry's early James Bond soundtracks either. Glad you are exploring Wes Montgomery.  Although firmly in blues traditions, Jimmie Smith is a genius improviser/composer, and his collaborations with Wes are amazing. In my opinion, exploring that golden age of the late 50s, early 60s, on the cusp of the turn to free jazz and fusion, will provide some great entry points. Then you can stretch from there into the records of Miles Davis' second group: ESP, Sorcerer, Miles Smiles, etc. and on from there. Enjoy!   ps - Jeff Parker is a genius. Check out Isotope 217's _The Unstable Molecule_ from the 1990s. 

@ezwind

Not really, if you know the melody. It’s not like I’m making it up myself, which is how I define scatting -- improvisation in the moment, when a singer utilizes their voice like a horn to create new melodic lines.

Yes -- I’m aware of what you state about the Dead. It could be said that Garcia’s awareness and utilization of chord tones in his soloing was more akin to how a Jazz player would solo, as opposed to the more typical (For Rock) approach of overlaying a scale or two over a progression. (The Son’s Terry Haggerty was another). I’m a huge fan of Weir’s playing and know about his admiration for Tyner.

The thing is, for me, the Dead don’t sound much like Jazz. Much of their music is very major-sounding, as opposed to dominant-sounding. They may have been as influenced by Jazz as the Allman Brothers, but to my ear, the sound of Jazz is much more evident in the music of the Allmans -- not only harmonically, but rhythmically. The Allmans swung! Nevertheless, the Dead’s improvisatory approach definitely helped open me up to Jazz.

However, when I think about it, it was actually Stevie Wonder who probably had greatest influence in this regard -- particularly "Innervisions". That really opened my ears, not only in terms of listening, but it made me want to expand my chordal knowledge and understanding on the guitar. I began trying to transpose his piano chords to guitar, which in turn made me realize many of the guitar chords in the Innervisions "songbook" I’d bought were inaccurate. But I digress.

@garrettc

Wes Montgomery's guitar playing is jazz, but he's very lyrical

 

Your insertion of  "but" makes it sound as though lyricism is a rare exception in Jazz. Not to my ear!  

Diana Krall's music is excellent.  Wes Montgomery's guitar playing is jazz, but he's very lyrical, Cal Collins is lyrical and excellent, Joe Pass, Wendell Jones Trio, Frank Vincent.  For Brazilian, Susana Baca or anyone who does Antonio Carlos Jobim's music. If you like smooth jazz try some Peter White, Larry Carlton, Earl Klugh, Kenny G.  There are so many jazz artists who are lyrical as well as jazz oriented.

@stuartk

Yes, the Dead’s jazz influences don’t show up as consistently as with the ABB, probably because their music encompasses a lot more different musical styles and genres. But you can certainly hear it in songs like Eyes of the World, Bird Song, Crazy Fingers, and some versions of Dark Star. And the band would swing a lot more when Kreutzmann was the sole drummer for a few years in the early 70s.

Garcia played a lot more in the jazz vein with his own bands, especially with Merl Saunders and Howard Wales. He did some great versions of My Favorite Things with Merl. And of course, you also have Jazz Is Dead, which showed how many Dead songs could be adapted and played more 'jazzily' if that's a word.