Extrapolation is a great album. So is McLaughlin's "acid" album Devotion

McLaughlin got me interested in jazz, and I still have Wes Montgomery's Smokin' at the Half Note on vinyl - incredible record.

Start naming jazz players and you'll get me going for sure...
Jim Hall
Pat Metheny
Pat Martino (maybe my all-time favorite "straight" jazz player)
Bill Frissell
Joe Pass (The duo albums he did with Ella Fitzgerald are some of the most sublime jazz ever recorded, IMHO)

...and those are just off the top of my head

Lenny Breaux was great, too - died tragically early