Want a quick intro to some jazz giants? The Quintet was a modern jazz supergroup that formed specifically for a one-off gig in Canada, at Toronto’s Massey Hall, on May 15, 1953. While you’re reading, listen to our Jazz For Beginners playlist here.Ĭlick to load video The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut, 1953) If you have any albums that you consider to be essential jazz for beginners, then let us know in the comments. We’ve listed these albums chronologically, so you can get a sense of jazz’s progression across the years. 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. 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. Both credible and accessible, they offer an entry point into jazz for beginners looking to make that first step into the unknown. 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. Everybody starts somewhere, so we hope that this feature can serve as an intro to jazz, the best albums for beginners to the genre.

Classic easy listening