Ruby Braff. Melodic and accessible, both as background and for critical listening.

The Oscar Peterson Trio.

Bill Frisell, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis,since they are favorites of mine.

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is the benchmark.

Autumn Leaves from Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderly.

Louis Armstrong from the Hot 5 & Hot 7 days. In fact, I'd start with that recommendation even for pop music.

I would go with Patricia Barber. A modern jazz artist who is creative, a great live performer, and makes great recordings.

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 do not have a clue. I look forward to what others have to say. I just do not get jazz.

Just one? That's absurd!

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.)

Old jazz, because modern jazz sounds too strange to a newbie. So let's start with Louis Armstrong. And after this, we go on with Coleman Hawkings.

Duke Ellington and/or Louis Armstrong.

I think it should be Patricia Barber!

Take her out to a club, hear some live music, and have a good time. That's what jazz is all about, not some moldy 200-gram reissue of Kind of Blue.

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue—all of jazz is there.

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.

Miles' Quintet recordings, from the '50s. Great, yet accessible, straight ahead jazz.

Miles Davis

Pat Metheny

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.

This, to me, is an easy one. To modern, uniformed ears, much of the best—and often earliest—stuff is going to sound like medicine, even Louis Armstrong. For today's ear, the answer is Miles, in all his varied wonder.

Start with early Miles Davis and grow with him. By the time you get to Live-Evil, you'll be there.

I would start with Joe Sample. His recordings are clean and dynamic!

Duke Ellington. He not only performed and composed a wide range of jazz material over a long period of time, he also recorded many pop tunes in a jazz style that makes him very accessible.

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.

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. I know it's cliche, but for good reason. An incredible record that's a very accessible bridge between pop music and multiple styles of jazz.

Miles Davis

Maybe an obvious choice, but I`d start with Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue, which can ease one in to the tonality, and maybe from there move on to Chet Baker or Stan Getz.

Miles Davis circa mid-'50s; certainly not the definitive sound of jazz, but as close as anyone has gotten, and quite accessible for the first-time listener.