Everybody starts somewhere, so we hope that this feature can serve as an intro to jazz, the best albums for beginners to the genre. Taken together, the below 20 albums form an intro to jazz – each one is a brilliant album that no discerning jazz fan would be without. Both credible and accessible, they offer an entry point into jazz for beginners looking to make that first step into the unknown. We've included albums that consistently make the lists of the most important jazz albums of all time, along with other albums that have added breadth to the genre. There's also big band swing, a shining example of jazz guitar, stunning vocal jazz, and some of the funkiest organ ever captured in the studio. Plus a whole lot more.
We've listed these albums chronologically, so you can get a sense of jazz's progression across the years. - Richard Havers And Charles Waring
