The best thing about listening to jazz is when you acquire an ear for all the different styles over the past century and then find a musician that can coherently incorporate all of them into one song or solo. Pianists are unsurprisingly the best at this. When someone can seamlessly go from 1920's stride to 1940's bebop, then 1950's hard bop and 1960's postbop stuff all in one go, it sounds like nothing else. It's the type of shit jazz was made for, as this is when it truly unlocks musical and emotional territories no other genre can do. Guys like Jaki Byard were masters at this, and understanding that level of musicianship is by far some of the most satisfying times I've had being a music fan.