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Ruby Braff. Melodic and accessible, both as background and for critical listening.
Continuing with the theme started with last week's question: Which single composer or performer would you recommend to introduce someone to jazz music? And why?
Jazz, like a lot of other varieties of music, has many many great composers and performers. One performance that brings some of the very best together, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald performing music of George Gershwin is available on YouTube. The clarity of Satchmo's trumpet sends chills down my spine.
I'd need to know who that someone is and where she/he is coming from musically (and where she/he is trying to get to as well). Of course, I'd have to set my biases aside as well. (Yeah, fat chance of that really happening.)
Tommy Flanagan, because of his lyrical and good-natured way of making music. Much of his work is based on blues themes, something that is appealing to both hard-bop jazz fans and novices. The Branford Marsalis album Trio Jeepy is also a great starting-point, both from a musical and an audiophile point of view.
Dexter Gordon. Probably a safe choice. Melodic lines, sufficient improvization, not too abastract. He also served as a transitional bridge between the pre '50s and '60s styles while staying true to the roots. Plus he stared in the great jazz movie Round Midnight.
Frank Zappa because anyone for whom I'd bother would have a powerful sense of humor and irony, and the unexpected construction in FZ's music might ease such a person's transition into Miles and Thelonius and Ornette and all the others.