Top 10 Jazz recordings ever

For vocals I suggest these five diverse CDs:
Ernestine Anderson - Never Make Your Move Too Soon
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Ella Fitzgerald - Sings The George & Ira Gershwin Songbook
Mark Murphy - Love is What Stays
Anita O'Day - Anita Sings the Most

And when you are ready for instrumentals I suggest starting with these five CDs:
Cannonball Adderly - Somethin' Else
Dave Brubeck - Time Out
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Art Pepper - + Eleven

All wonderful, very accessible music. Nothing far out.

Sbank - Don't be "shocked". I've listened to jazz for 40 years and never heard "Plays King Oliver". But thanks to you I checked it out - fabulous! Thank you for the recommendation!

Has anyone purchased any of the '8 classic albums' sets being offered on amazon?

I did. I got the set of Anita O'Day CDs. Some of the CDs had poor sound quality compared to single CD releases. Some sounded fine. I'll not purchase these again for other artists.

Orpheus10 - Certainly. That gal can swing! Of hers I have:

This Is Anita
Pick Yourself Up
Sings the Most
Sings the Winners
Swings Cole Porter
Cool Heat
Swings Rodgers and Hart
Waiter Make Mine Blues
Trav'lin' Light
Time for Two
The Life of a Jazz Singer (DVD)

On almost all her lp/cd covers, she looks as if she is undergoing torture.

Heroin will do that to you. She should have fired her drummer (drug provider) instead.

If you haven't seen it yet, get the DVD "Jazz on a Summer's Day". It covers the '58 Newport Festival, where she sings Sweet Georgia Brown. IMO, the greatest jazz vocal performance of all time. Other great performers as well (although not Miles Davis - he refused to be recorded on film that day).