Late to the party, but being one of our resident "pretty much only plays jazz" guys I might as well chime in.
You can definitely play jazz on anything, but it IS a good idea to have a devoted "jazz guitar." There's a sound in those archtops with f-holes, and it should be noted that one of THE quintessential jazz guitars, the Gibson ES-175-- is an all laminate construction. You can find similar tones in lots of Epiphone and Ibanez guitars for only a few hundred dollars. It's also important to mention, that while they are very nice guitars-- the Eastman aesthetic is basically from the Benedetto book. So if you want the sound of say, Joe Pass on "Joy Spring," or Kenny Burrell's early stuff, the Eastman is not going to do that sound as well as the much cheaper Ibanez or Epiphone.
But more important than the guitar itself even, is the setup. If you do really like that 50's classic jazz tone, flatwounds are fantastic. I keep flats on my Heritage 575, because that's the specific sound I'm after.
Heavier strings can be a great idea too...now, you're probably saying, but won't that make the guitar harder to play? Honestly, not necessarily. A 24.75" scale archtop (like the 175) strung with .012's and low action (not too low, but you can go pretty low with heavy strings) is actually not that hard to play, and the biggest benefit comes when playing more complex chords your hands haven't done before...heavy strings stay put, whereas lighter strings might be bent and pushed out of tune. A wound G string, for sure, gives better intonation benefits as well.
Lastly, when it comes to the actual playing of the music, remember jazz is not theory and scales. It's songs. You have to learn songs. And train your ear. If you learned 10 melodies by ear and copped licks from 5 of your favorite players while learning the chords to those 10 tunes as well, I bet you'd have a better foundation in playing than 90% of the folks who try to "start playing jazz" by getting a book and doing exercises.
Always remember it's music, and you'll be good to go.
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