Jazz recommendations for a beginner?

I second the Crusaders. Try there Healing the Wounds and the latest Rural Renewal. If you like that, then try Wilten Felder last solo cd or Joe Sample's 'Best Of.' Also try Joe Becks' Back to Beck cd. You can get it for 3 bucks from Acoustic Sounds or Amusic Direct.

Jorge,

Without meaning to offend you & without meaning to be the "Jazz Police" - "Kind of Blue" is an awesome album!
My friend lent me the CD, which is a Sony SBM i.e. 20-bits, etc, etc & it promised to be a good recording. I heard it a few time & I just didn't like it! I wonder why the performers were making so much noise in all the tracks?? Where was the music? Anyway, I just had a gut feeling that I was missing something 'cuz everyone I spoke to - young or older - expressed to me just how great this album is & that it represents some seminal Jazz work.
So, I bit the bullet & bought the Classic Records re-issue LP from Music Direct.
I can tell you emphatically & confidently that it completely changed my opinion of this album! The LP is just dynamite & the CD version just plain sucks!
The SBM recording CD might be a good recording but the LP takes this music to a higher level that the CD just *cannot* match. The synergy of the instruments in all the tracks is just incredible & the album now sounds like music.
Another thing that will help you (& it helps me a lot) is to read some liner notes & other info that you can find re. this album. This helps to explain the existing conditions of Jazz & the resp. artists during the year that the album was recorded. It helps to transport you to that era & mentally sets you up to listen to the music in the correct context. Some people call this their "mood" - somedays we want to rock the house w/ Rolling Stones, other days we want some calming music, still other days we want a seductive voice like Diana Krall, etc. To apprciate "Kind of Blue" you must set your mood correctly - it is "heavy" Jazz in that it is Bop Jazz, which is not casually listened to as background music while cooking dinner! Maybe one day you will when you become more acustomed to listening to traditional Jazz.
The new Jazz of Pat Barber & Diana Krall is very good & has its place but the traditional Jazz of Miles Davis, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, etc, etc. is richer music. It doesn't follow a conformist pattern that most music to today follows. Thus, the artists are able to show of their tremendous skills while still playing to a beat/rhythm! This same non-conformist accent is very much present in "Kind Of Blue" & is perhaps the reason it didn't appeal to you.
FWIW. IMHO. YMMV.

Tough dam crowd huh Jorge,you would think you were a
republican at a union assembly.Duck those rocks bra.
I love all three you bought,and you did kindly lay it out there that you just started out in this.My god the guy
just asked for some "music" suggestions but we audiogeeks
eat our young don't we?
I started out in smooth jazz too.Hope my life insurance is paid up.Try out Pat Methany"Speaking of Now","Secret Story"
Marilyn Scott,"Avenues of Love",P Barber,"Modern Cool"
Bob Beldin,"Black Dahlia",Norah Jones,"Come away w/Me"
Post back if you tried and liked any of these.Just hang on
to Miles Davis for occasional checking back with as your tastes shift over time.Look for Verve and Blue Note Various
artists CD's.These are wonderful to hear many artists old and new,smooth and not in the huge catagory of Jazz.Even
Miles got hammered by the critics of the day,now those albums are masterpieces.Listen on young Jedi....

If you check out the used music stores many have the Jazziz
magazine compilations.They have non standard paper cases
labeled in the months they sent via mail to subscibers with
its partnered magazine.Excellent way to check out many artists cheaply.

I would recomend Don Shirley as an instermental jazz artist- his sound is quite diffret from that of Davis and Coltrane. As for vocal music Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan are both quite good (as are many others). I would also recomend Ellington's black, brown and Beidge. If you do not have acess to good jazz radio it may by advisable to by a few inexpensive, but broad compalation cd's to see with styles and artists you like.