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Q: As a member of Gen Z who\u2019s completely new to jazz, who should I listen to? What are some famous recordings, albums, artists or compilations?<\/strong><\/p>\n Glad you asked! I\u2019m an editor on the New York Times Culture desk who listens to (and sometimes writes about) a wide<\/a> range<\/a> of music<\/a>, and I edit the \u201c5 Minutes That Will Make You Love<\/a>\u201d series covering jazz. Even so, I consider myself more of a jazz enthusiast than an expert, especially compared with the \u201c5 Minutes\u201d writers and contributors, and I totally get how a genre with more than a century of history can be intimidating. With so much variety, though, I think jazz can be a rewarding listen for almost anyone \u2014 so let\u2019s talk about how you can find some that you\u2019ll love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve only heard of one jazz musician, and it\u2019s Miles Davis. Perfect \u2014 he had a decades-long career that included tons of stylistic shifts, from bebop (1940s) to cool jazz (1950s) to electric fusion<\/a> (the late 1960s and beyond). If you\u2019re hearing jazz playing in a restaurant or bar, it\u2019s a decent bet that it\u2019s \u201cKind of Blue<\/a>,\u201d Davis\u2019s 1959 masterpiece with a sextet that included John Coltrane<\/a> and Cannonball Adderley. (Hedge bet: Coltrane\u2019s \u201cBlue Train.\u201d<\/a>) Simply exploring Davis\u2019s large catalog would be a jazz education, covering multiple milestones like \u201cBirth of the Cool<\/a>\u201d (1957) and the fusion landmark \u201cBitches Brew<\/a>\u201d (1970). The first jazz album I ever bought, somewhat at random, was Davis\u2019s \u201c\u2019Round About Midnight\u201d (1957), and I still love it, especially its brisk take on the Charlie Parker composition \u201cAh-Leu-Cha<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So my (not very deep) advice is, start with the canon \u2014 but it sounds like you\u2019re looking for guidance on who\u2019s in it. Any list is going to provoke debate, but the soundtrack to Ken Burns\u2019s 10-part documentary \u201cJazz\u201d<\/a> seems like as good a place as any to encounter most of the Mount Rushmore names \u2014 Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday<\/a>, Duke Ellington<\/a>, Coltrane, Parker \u2014 even if plenty of critics took issue<\/a> with the series. The former Times critic Ben Ratliff wrote a 2002 book<\/a>, \u201cThe New York Times Essential Library: Jazz,\u201d that attempts to list the 100 most important jazz recordings<\/a>, and the website for Jazz at Lincoln Center offers a more concise 10<\/a>, leading with the Dave Brubeck Quartet\u2019s \u201cTime Out.\u201d (That album\u2019s \u201cTake Five<\/a>\u201d is on the shortlist of jazz songs that even non-fans recognize.) You can also \u2014 plug! \u2014 take a spin through the \u201c5 Minutes\u201d archive<\/a> to find playlists for topics that might interest you.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t be afraid of giants<\/h2>\n