Getting into Jazz

[greekorican]

I want to try my hand at playing some jazz because I have heard that playing jazz teaches you a lot about theory and music in general, and makes you a much better player. The thing is, I don't really listen to jazz, so I don't know what I should buy/download. I have some Coltrane and some Miles Davis. Can you recommend some more jazz for me to get?

[jweiss]

Can't go wrong with Coltrane and Miles.

Here are a few more artists to check out:

Bill Evans
Brad Mehldau
Brian Bromberg (specifically, the album "Wood")
Cannonball Adderley
Charlie Parker
Freddie Hubbard
Hank Jones Trio
Horace Silver
Joe Henderson
Lucky Thompson
McCoy Tyner
Modern Jazz Quartet
Oscar Peterson
Paul Chambers
Ray Brown
Ron Carter
Sonny Rollins
Tommy Flanagan
Wayne Shorter
Wes Montgomery

This site is pretty cool:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/

If you go under "musicians", then "search", you can find biographies of these people, plus links to relevant web pages, videos, discographies etc.