Gettin' jazzy wih it

I dig jazz.
It's not an artform that I know a lot about, but like physical art istelf, I know what I like.
I like the funk of a Hammond organ jam, the wail of a trumpet that's so intense I can picture myself in a dark, smokefilled club with red candles burning on the tables and a good chianti breathing.
I dig the soulful playing of a guitar strum or the schintzy sounds of drum brushes on a pair of cymbals. The thump of an upright bass gets me thumping in rhythm on the keyboard at work.
I can pick some jams out of albums without reading the liner notes, but musicians is something I'm learning.
I like Coltrane, Miles, Hampton Hawes, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and the more modern funk driven Medeski, Martin and Wood.
Why jazz when 10 years ago I dismissed it as formless noise? I don't know. It's something April doesn't really dig. My mom kinda likes some jazz, Dad's an Elvis man, so jazz isn't there either. It's like visual art, I know what I like when I see/hear it, and I'll stick to it.
-DJr-