How to get myself in to jazz?

I don't really have much people to talk to nor my musice teach because i don't know a single dot of jazz except accouple of people. How can i get myself into em?|||You don't say what music you have been used to so forgive me if I assume it's pop.





The first thing you'll need to bear in mind is that jazz may come as a bit of a hard nut to crack at first. You may find it discordant, even totally bewildering.





But fear not.





All can be well.





Pop music is successful because it assumes no musical ability on the part of its audience. So you need to start off with something fairly easy on the ear in order to begin your journey.





Suggestions would include:





Count Basie (big band swing)


George Shearing Quintet (classy arrangments of standard tunes)





For vocal music, really any of the Great American Songbook singers: Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme etc





I don't know if you play an instrument or not but if so it might be a good idea to get some recordings of jazz players who play the same instrument; you'd have a way in there because you've had the experience of playing the instrument.





If you know a bit of music theory then you can quickly learn the structure of most straight-ahead jazz. AABA form, a 32 bar sequence. B is the middle 8. The chord sequence repeats in a cycle while the soloists take their turn improvising, or if you prefer instantaneously making up a new melody on the same chords.





If you have a classical background then think of it as 'theme and variations'.





Good luck!|||You don't say what kind of jazz you might be interested in or what kind of instrument. My experience is light jazz- Paul Hardcastle, Grover Washington and Kenny G. The harder jazz I listen to is John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.