Jazz Ballads

What is a good Jazz Ballad?

I'm listening to some of my jazz ballads from iTunes
-Sonny Rollins "You Don't Know What Love Is"
-John Coltrane "In a Sentimental Mood"
-Miles Davis "When I Fall in Love"
- Wynton Marsalis "End Of A Love Affair"
- Ellington "Chelsea Bridge"
- Basie "Lil' Darling"

What makes these ballads great? Yes, the music is well written; the chords create some amazing colors but I don't have that sound, that essence that is , well, essential, to jazz ballads. (commas anyone?)
So what am I hearing? It's something Emotional, Spiritual, Physical, Sexual (can I say that, Bethelites might read this!!). Great Jazz ballads have the essence of romance injected into them. Their sound pierces you deeply. A single held note says many things; they have an urgency in them that says, I love you. They say I just want to hold you close and then tell us what it feels like when you do. Great Jazz ballads make you want to find someone to share the music with (if you don't already have that person). They say, ah! Yes! The is what love really is. I can't completely explain what they say, in fact each persons experience is subjectuve; what says to me "Love" might say to you "Pain". Maybe is says both?
One of the greatest things Jazz ballads have taught me is that love and pain are inexplicably tied together. Love is pain and pain is love; not is the meaning that love is always painful. But someone crying evokes a feeling of love. "That person is hurting and I feel for them" or "I love you so much it hurts". These feelings are urges that want to burst out of our skins and yell, but that won't do enough. Words will not say all that is involved that's why Rollins, Coltrane, Miles, Wynton, Ellington, and Basie played it.