For something of latin flavor, anything from Elaine Elias before she started singing.
I've been listening a lot to Denny Zeitlin the last few weeks. He has tremendous technique in the modern age from his years of intensive classical work, but has a great sense of harmonics and melody as well that make him one of the best currently active jazz pianists around. For those who haven't listened, he's like a cross between Evans, Newborn, and Tristano. The only reason he isn't more famous is because he is too busy being a world renowned psychiatrist, pioneering the Control-Mastery Theory along with Joseph Weiss. Truly a tremendous personality. Many know unwittingly him as the composer of Quiet Now, which was championed by Bill Evans (even becoming an album title for Evans) and has now become a standard, or from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.He's also pretty accessible, especially earlier in his career. As always, I'd suggest to start at the beginning, with his debut album Cathexis, or just buy the Mosaic set with his first three albums for Columbia.Here's a very interesting 4 part interview which cover a whole host of interesting topics, from his own history, to his thoughts on jazz and the improvisatory spirit.
