CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS : Calendar’s critics share their love of the arts: the gift each would give a friend today : JAZZ

The love of jazz is such a personal matter that it is all but impossible to show, through one gift, its entire achievement and grandeurs.

An album that comes closest is the recently revised “Smithsonian Selection of Classic Jazz.� Here are 95 performances, on seven records, that illustrate the beauty of early traditions: through the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Frankie Trumbauer; the brilliant writing, glorious ensembles and solo work heard in the Big Bands, from Ellington and Basie to Lunsford and Goodman; the timeless be-bop innovations of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and the avant-garde experiments of John Coltrane and the World Saxophone Quartet.

I suspect that this listening experience could make out of the most hardened skeptic the same dedicated believer I have been all my adult life. (The album is P7-19477.)