You might have heard names like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, but for many jazz can seem like an intimidating genre to plunge into.
But where do you start? RNZ's resident jazzman Nick Tipping shares some tunes for the uninitiated - a jazz starter kit if you like.
Clockwise from left: Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, Jelly Roll Morton and Billie Holiday. Photo:
Jazz offers something for everyone, Tipping says.
First up Jelly Roll Morton who was a pianist and band leader, a man who claimed to have invented jazz, he brought humour and fun to this emerging style of music.
'Doctor Jazz' by Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers released in 1926 is good example of his work.
In the 1930s clarinet player and band leader Benny Goodman was a leading name in swing, he billed himself as 'The King of Swing'.
His signature track was 'Sing! Sing! Sing!' Recorded in 1937 with the legendary Gene Krupa on drums.
In the 1940s Duke Ellington was the premier big band leader of his generation and he composed numerous jazz standards, perhaps his most famous being 'Take the A Train' which he recorded in 1941.
Great vocalists have also shaped Jazz, not least Billie Holiday, says Tipping.
"The reason I love Billie Holiday is there's a real vulnerability in the way that she sings, she had a really hard life, we celebrate her as this massive icon in jazz but boy she had a rough time and you can hear that in that way that she sings, just a real fragility."
'God Bless the Child' recorded in 1942 is one her best-known tunes.
The next great movement in jazz was bebop, with leading lights including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Parker's virtuosity on alto sax was legendary, says Tipping.
Bebop emerged during World War II, it was fast and energetic jazz and 'Ornithology' recorded by Parker in 1946 is a classic of the style. The title a nod to his nickname 'Bird'.
Moving into the '50s, some of the biggest names in jazz start coming into their own. We get key albums from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins.
Davis is considered one of jazz's greatest, his career spanned the 1940s through to the 2000s, Tipping says.
"He has this knack of inventing new genres of music just by getting the right musicians in the right room at the right time and coming up with something completely new.
"He was at the forefront of bebop, at the forefront of cool jazz with album called The Birth of the Cool at the forefront of hard bop with some of his great albums on Prestige and all the way through to jazz fusion with Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way, he just kept coming up with the goods."
Davis playing in his signature restrained style is illustrated by his 1959 version of George Gershwin's 'Summertime', Tipping says.
One of Jazz's most famous songs is 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck recorded in 1959.
It was technically an interesting song, most jazz has four beats to the bar, which is pretty standard for pop music, but 'Take Five' has five beats to the bar giving it a "lop-sided feel", says Tipping.
Nick has created a Spotify playlist featuring all the songs played today and some extra jazz standards.
