There are all kinds of Jazz.
You can start with old favourites like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley etc.
OR
You can go Jazz Swing, Kidd Ory, Count Bassie, Duke Ellington etc.
OR
You can come right up to date with Jazz Fusion artists like Candy Dulfer, Pat Metheney, Billy Cobham and Miles Davis again.
Try a few of the Jazz playlists you get on main stream Streamer sites like Spotify or Qobuz. The variety is endless and enthralling.
A previous comment was “Run… Now!”
Nice one Graeme🤣
Not the worst advice I’ve ever heard when it comes to JAZZ 
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Jazz is as wide a spectrum as rock/pop.
These skirt various points on the spectrum.
.sjb
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Thanks very much Graeme.
Without wishing to extend a debate which I’m sure is raging elsewhere on this forum, will it sound better on vinyl or cd? I have both, though my very basic turntable dates from the time of the dinosaurs.
Vinyl vs CD = different, not better or worse.
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Depends as much on the source device as the media. Good CD on bad player will be beaten by Good Vinyl on Good player IMO.
My only source currently is Vinyl.
I will be adding a streamer in the future and am currently ripping all my CD’s to to a NAS using DBpoweramp.
I can’t see myself buying another CD player, but that’s just my preference.
I would start by taking a look at the ’ Jazz Music Thread’ thread. Lots of good suggestions from forum members on what albums they are playing. You could also check out the ‘Blue Note Records’ label web site.
When in doubt start with Miles Davis ‘Kind of Blue’
A sampling of artists that I have in my CD/NAS collection are: Charles Lloyd, Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, Bill Frisell, Jakob Bro, Andy Sheppard, Anouar Brahem, Avishai Cohen (Trumpet), Avishai Cohen (Bass), Charlie Hayden, Dexter Gordon, Django Bates, Eberhard Weber, Lyle Mays, Elina Duni, Enrico Rava, Freddie Hubbard, Go Go Penguin, Grant Green, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Garbarek, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Keith Bjornstad, Marcin Wasilewski, Mathias Eick, Michele Rabbia, Nik Bartsch, Oliver Nelson, Pat Metheny, Paul Bley, Paul Motian, Quercus, Ralph Towner, Shai Maestro, Stefano Bollani, Bill Evans, Tomasz Stanko, Tord Gustavsen, Trygve Seim, Vanessa Rubin, Wadada Leo Smith, Wayne Horvitz, Wayne Shorter, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Yellowjackets, Zakir Hussain, Ziv Ravitz.
Lots of different types of Jazz and artists to explore. I have been introduced to a large number of artists since joining the forum. The Jazz thread along with the ’ What are you listening to in 2022 and why might anyone be interested" are two great sources for what others are listening to and easy to access artists if you use a streaming service.
Have fun exploring!
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If you like guitar based rock I’d try Amancio D’Silva, John McLaughlin and this excellent record by Graham Collier
Wow - thanks for the responses everyone - greatly appreciated.
Busy weekend on eBay / Amazon……
Does anyone know of any specialist jazz record / cd shops in London?
I know Oxfam used to be a great source for vinyl especially, but since it started gaining in popularity again their selection is pretty meagre these days.
In a zen-like coincidence my 15 year old daughter asked me to recommend some jazz to her to add to the stuff she already listens to. I can appreciate it (some of it) but it tends to pass me by. Probably since I was invited to listen to a collection of dudes (I pointedly don’t use the term band or group) playing free form jazz in Harvard MA many years ago. So free form I wondered if they’d ever met before that evening. What a mess. I will take these recommendations and pass them off as my own 
Start with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, the two most important figures in the history of this music.
Duke -
Ellington Masterpieces
Blues in Orbit
Far East Suite
The Blanton Webster Band
Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
Jazz Party
Ellington Uptown
Money Jungle
Such Sweet Thunder
The Afro Eurasian Eclipse
Satchmo -
Louis Armstrong Plays WC Handy
Ella & Louis
Satch Plays Fats
Louis Armstrong & His All Stars Vol 1 & 2
Complete Hot Fives and Sevens
The last-named, from the 1920s, are the most important recordings in all of jazz. The Fives and Sevens are where the music takes shape - Armstrong combines his dazzling virtuosity with extraordinary improvisational skills, and invents the improvised jazz solo AND scat singing along the way.
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As a stepping point from somewhere that may be familiar to you, you could try the colaberation between Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin on ‘Love Devotion Surrender’ on CBS with a picture of the two guitarists in white waistcoats and short hair on the cover.
The original Tourist CD is an outstanding recording and cool jazz disc, whereas the travel versions are remixes and a little too over produced and repetitive in my view. The OP should find this more accessible.
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If your foundations are in rock & pop, then delving in to some blues/blues-rock, may also be of interest (?). IMV, it’s far more interesting & diverse than modern-day rock & pop.
Be careful with descriptors like ‘free-form’ and/or ‘improvised jazz’, as these aren’t smooth & melodic like Louis and others.
For blues rock investigate Beth Hart & Joe B. as a starter – and You Tube music selections allow you to surf by genre etc,.
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The Bill Evans Trio
Mingus
Brubeck
Miles
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If you like guitar based rock, I’d suggest you have a listen to this, which is jazz-rock fusion at its best. It will introduce you to John McLaughlin too, who is a phenomenal guitar player.
Then try Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way (which also features guitar maestro John McLaughlin).
Perhaps the finest example of modal jazz, which is very accessible for most western people, is Miles’s Kind of Blue (which is the best selling jazz album of all time). This will introduce you to Bill Evans too.
Then try Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (which is the second best selling jazz album). It took me some time to ‘get’ this album, but when I did I found it to be an incredible musical creation.
Then, as Del Boy Trotter said, the world is your lobster.
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