Filles de Kilamanjaro started it all for me in late 1971. Found it as a ringer in a dull library collection, bought the lp, then soon bought Bitches Brew.
I had "jazz" under my belt thanks to my mom and dad's Brubeck, Ellington, Miller and a few other lps. I didn't connect this Miles material to jazz at all for a spell. It had that electric blues feel that I had learned to love in Africa, and it had some aspects of African music to it as well. It was the first new music that I really responded to after returning to the States, and I dove into those releases and the ones to follow (and the offshoot bands such as WR, Headhunters, Return to Forever) with a passion.