Best Jazz Education

Collectors know Jack's Record Cellar for its impressive selection of 45s, stacked high in their yellowed sleeves. But this tumbledown store in the Lower Haight is also a great place for neophytes whose love of jazz starts and ends with the fact that they once made out to A Love Supreme in college. Owner Wade Wright, a chipper, avuncular man with a walrus mustache, loves helping people learn about -- and enjoy -- jazz. He answers even the most clueless queries with gentle, helpful responses, and will spend half an hour demoing music on the house record player before cutting you a deal on your purchases. You can even bring your LPs back to exchange, if you decide you don't like them. But you won't often need to.