I can't quibble (much) with most of the items listed, but all of the CDs I've listed below will give you great jazz without scaring the bejesus out of you, especially if you digest them more or less in the order shown:
1) Bill Evans-Waltz for Debby-or Sunday at the Village Vanguard
2) Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
3) Chico Freeman-Spirit Sensitive
4) Tommy Flanagan-Sea Changes
5) Modern Jazz Quartet-The Last Concert (It wasn't, but get it anyway!)
6) Clifford Brown/Max Roach-Any of the EmArcy reissues
7) Duke Ellington-Newport '58: The fairly recent 2CD reissue on Columbia where they actually blended separate mono tapes into a convincing stereo mix
8) John Coltrane-Giant Steps
9) Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners
10) Miles Davis/Gil Evans-The Columbia sampler CD of the big band sessions compiled from the boxed set
11) Charles Mingus: Tijuana Moods
12) Ornette Coleman-The Shape of Jazz To Come
13) Dave Douglas-Stargazer
Well, that's a lot more than one, but it is a pretty good Baker's Dozen that will give you an overview of jazz in the past half century.
1) Bill Evans-Waltz for Debby-or Sunday at the Village Vanguard
2) Miles Davis-Kind of Blue
3) Chico Freeman-Spirit Sensitive
4) Tommy Flanagan-Sea Changes
5) Modern Jazz Quartet-The Last Concert (It wasn't, but get it anyway!)
6) Clifford Brown/Max Roach-Any of the EmArcy reissues
7) Duke Ellington-Newport '58: The fairly recent 2CD reissue on Columbia where they actually blended separate mono tapes into a convincing stereo mix
8) John Coltrane-Giant Steps
9) Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners
10) Miles Davis/Gil Evans-The Columbia sampler CD of the big band sessions compiled from the boxed set
11) Charles Mingus: Tijuana Moods
12) Ornette Coleman-The Shape of Jazz To Come
13) Dave Douglas-Stargazer
Well, that's a lot more than one, but it is a pretty good Baker's Dozen that will give you an overview of jazz in the past half century.