In 1973 (age 15) on advice from my high school music teacher: Horace Silver/Blowing the Blues Away. Followed by Four and More and a Coltrane double-LP reissue The Atlantic Years. Over the next couple of years:
Return to Forever: Light as a Feather, Hymn to the Seventh Galaxy
Billy Cobham: Spectrum, Crosswinds
Mahavishnu: Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire
Herbie Hancock: Headhunters, Thrust
Weather Report: Mysterious Traveler
Sun Ra: Jazz in Silhouette
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis: With Joe Williams, Central Park North, Consummation, New Life
Trane: Ascension
McCoy: Sama Layuca, Trident, Echoes of a Friend
Miles: Jack Johnson
Elvin: Genesis
Freddie Hubbard: Straight Life
Joe Farrell: Moon Germs
Ahmad Jamal: Impulse Years reissue