Jazz recs wanted
So - now, in secondary high, I'm taking a music programme, meaning that in addition to the commmon core subjects, I have various music-related subjects as well (including instrument lessons). In the musical history subject, where the lessons are 50% listening to music and 50% placing said music in a historic context, we just finished the chapters on popular music - including jazz. Now, I was already familiar with the rock and pop parts of the topic (really superficial - a couple of my peers were confusing Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath more than once, so performing well on the test wasn't really an issue). But jazz was (and, well, is) pretty new to me. I've listened to a couple of albums already, but I don't know if I'm even "understanding" them correctly, and I've never really made an effort to dig into the genre. If you asked me just a couple of weeks ago to separate bop from swing, I couldn't have answered. But now I want to get a closer look at it all, and I'm going to need some help with that.
What I want is album recommendations, preferably with a few comments on what to look for while listening. Old classics and great, new stuff, it's all good, but preferably somewhat accessible stuff. I'm a newcomer - like, hold the free jazz for a while. I might give a few comments on the recommended albums in here if I manage to form an opinion on them, articulate said opinion, and find the time and effort to write a half-decent chunk of text on it - but a journal series isn't really the goal here.
Cheers.