Sure. But I sat through a lot of rock concerts with 20-minute guitar or drum solos. That’s not a vice only of jazz.
Jazz, like the best chamber music, is very much in the moment. I’d suggest to anyone for whom the jazz bug hasn’t yet caught, go see it played live. It’s probably a near necessary pre-condition to enjoying recorded jazz.
I suspect that once most folks see the incredible communication ( with each other, and with the audience) that happens when a good jazz group plays, they’ll be hooked.
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For me, this whole danceability factor is completely irrelevant, too. I’m a passionate non-dancer!
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Not mutually exclusive, but I see a distinction.
We appreciate looking at Guernica, even though it does not make us happy, a wrenching depiction of war crimes against civilians. And it’s not even a good rendering!
And in Hamlet, everybody dies! And there isn’t a hero we can identify with!
In No Country For Old Men everybody is stupid or venal or horrifying or impotent or clueless, Aand everybody dies except the horrifying and impotent guys.
Lolita isn’t really heartwarming.
I’m fortunate to be able to go to > 20 live jazz gigs/year, covering a wide range of styles from standards to fusion to free. When the musicians connect like you say, it’s magical. Listened to Dave Holland with Kenny Barron on Friday, with some Monk standards and some of their own compositions, subtly bluesy and delicate improvisations; and then Dave Holland again with Obed Calvaire and Kevin Eubanks, a much more driven set, at times inspired by fusion and West African guitar (at times Eubanks seemed to be channeling Ali Farka Touré’s ghost), at times reprising some of Holland’s mid-2000s work, sometimes a reworked Prism style. What’s amazing with contemporary jazz masters like Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Wadada Leo Smith, Jason Moran is the breadth of music they can bring to life and improvise from, not just jazz standards but classical, Latin, pop, … always with a unique personal touch that makes each session a precious new event. Once one gets into this, their recordings make a lot more sense and allow us to enjoy again their past creative moves.
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Here’s an attempt at a list of tunes to try if you’re not a jazz fan. I’m pretty sure at least several of these will appeal to just about anyone that enjoys music:
ARTIST ALBUM SONG
Count Basie On My Way And Shoutin’ Again Shanghaied
Art Blakey A Jazz Message Just Knock on My Door
Marc Cary Focus Taiwa
Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain Solea
Lou Donaldson Blues Walk Blues Walk
Duke Ellington The Far East Suite Special Mix Blue Pepper (Far East of The Blues)
Herbie Hancock Takin’ Off Watermelon Man
M-Base Collective Motherland Pulse Motherland Pulse
Ron Miles Quiver Just Married
Hank Mobley Roll Call A Baptist Beat
Lee Morgan The Sidewinder The Sidewinder
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus St. Thomas
Sonny Stitt Sonny Stitt Sits in with the Oscar Peterson Trio Blues for Pres, Sweets, Ben & All Other Funky Ones
Charles Mingus The Clown Haitian Fight Song
Ray Anthony The Young Man with the Horn My Blue Heaven
Bill Evans Waltz for Debby My Romance
I believe it’s because you have to seriously listen to fully enjoy it and most people don’t give music that much time. Many people only have attention spans for catchy lyrics, repeatable melodies and all in less than 4 minutes. Anything longer than that and they’re moving on.
Jam Bands suffer the same impatient hatred. Those who want to sit down and listen learn to love it. Those who don’t want to put in the effort, hate it.
All true. But I was explicitly referring to entertainment in jazz. Nobody dies in jazz tunes (at least not in instrumental stuff 
)… That’s why I find the comparison misleading.
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Nice list. A really good gateway to jazz is Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West. Irresistable IMHO.
As with any case of people not liking a musical form, the problem is in the person who doesn’t like it not the music (since it’s a form and has good and bad music). Sometimes it can’t be overcome. Sometimes it can and what will draw people in may be totally different. Someone who likes punk rock but not jazz may come to like Bud Powell via Charles Mingus and that via Dolphy and that via Ayler. Someone who likes classical might get into the MJQ and find themselves at Ayler.
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I don’t like much jazz and detest Picasso. Each to their own.
So why do many people like classical compositions but still don’t like jazz. I really don’t think attention spans and liking or disliking jazz are linked.
It is somewhat relevant as jazz originated as dance music and was mostly played in ballrooms and clubs/dance halls in the 20s up to the 40s.
Duke Ellington was the first jazz artist to play at Carnegie Hall!
The common conception of jazz as an “intellectual” genre, whatever that means, is fairly recent (post 40s at least).
Anyway, jazz has evolved since then, so now it is a moot point, I agree, and I was just pointing out to the historical aspects.
Who says people hate jazz anyway?
And what is jazz exactly?
Well, exactly!
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Because much well-known classical music has become part of the automatic musical background, recognizable without demanding much from the listener? I bet I can pick some Bach, late Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky, Glass, that will be as “well received” by a typical classical audience as Monk, late 60s Miles, or exponents of free jazz/creative music like Anhony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell,… At least to judge from the unhappy audience reactions I’ve witnessed over the years when a “canonical” classical piece is paired with something less immediately recognized in a concert performance. The reality about musical taste is that it takes real work to transcend the limited range of the musical experiences of one’s youth, and most people are too busy or self-satisfied to try.
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A great list. But look at the release years:
Count Basie On My Way And Shoutin’ Again Shanghaied 1962
Art Blakey A Jazz Message Just Knock on My Door 1964
Marc Cary Focus Taiwa 2006
Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain 1960
Lou Donaldson Blues Walk Blues Walk 1958
Duke Ellington The Far East Suite Special Mix Blue Pepper 1967
Herbie Hancock Takin’ Off Watermelon Man 1962
M-Base Collective Motherland Pulse Motherland Pulse 1985
Ron Miles Quiver Just Married 2012
Hank Mobley Roll Call A Baptist Beat 1961
Lee Morgan The Sidewinder The Sidewinder 1963
Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus St. Thomas 1956
Sonny Stitt Sonny Stitt Sits in with the Oscar Peterson Trio Blues for Pres, Sweets, Ben & All Other Funky Ones 1959
Charles Mingus The Clown Haitian Fight Song 1957
Ray Anthony The Young Man with the Horn My Blue Heaven album: 1987, song: 1927
Bill Evans Waltz for Debby My Romance 1962
This is a problem for many young people. We can’t make jazz look like a museum piece. Like classical: this is my complaint with classical music, Mahler hasn’t done anything truly new in years, all we get is covers 
.
Looking at a Roon focus on jazz in this millennium, I see Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Michael Wollny, Craig Taborn, Stefano Battaglia, Adam Bałdych, Avishai Cohen (either of them), The Bad Plus…
I should go through them and find a list of tracks that are appealing to beginners, like you did.
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Classic!
And I completely agree with your point about the dinosaur-appearance of my list. Your idea of looking to contemporary jazz is right on.
I’d like to add Kris Bowers to your list. His stuff is a genre mishmash of the best kind.
The artistic descendants of Mahler are alive, well, and composing wonderful music. It just happens to be music your average person doesn’t like.
Wow elitist much.
Well, there is this observation in jazz clubs or gigs, there is nobody younger than 50…
Are they? Can you make some suggestions? I would love to hear some new stuff.
Ok, not this thread, maybe start a new thread.