[Wyllys]

I don't feel you "learn" jazz...or even music, for that matter. It's there for you, in you, around you. What you have to learn is to feel it.

I suggest selecting a song or two you're really familiar with and spending some "Tube time" on YouTube listening to as many different versions as you can find.
Some of my sources to search are:

Monk
Ella
Satchmo
Basie
Ellington
Joe Pass
Big bands

Listen until it's coming out your ears. If you internalize it, scat sing it, dance it-walk it-talk it, you won't even have to use an instrument for a year or two. When you finally get to picking up an instrument you'll be more than half way there because you'll know what you'll be trying to do.

It's not so easy to learn both the instrument and the music at the same time. So many folks put the blame on the instrument yet have less than a clue about WHAT they're trying to play on it.

So SING it. DANCE it. Eat, sleep and breathe it.

Then play it or better yet, let IT play you.

Who's next on the soapbox?