Whilst I can fully understand the common vomit-based reaction to the term 'fusion' I feel it is a word that has an undeserved reputation, based on a lot of very dreary music that became popular in the late 70s/early 80s from bands like Yellowjackets & Spyro Gyra, guitarists like Frank Gambale & Mike Stern, and even the great Miles Davis himself.
I have to say that the usual aforementioned reaction is usually provoked in individuals who have not been exposed to some of the unequivocally tremendous 'electric jazz' that emerged in the late 60s/early 70s, long before the name 'fusion' came about.
If you doubt me, I dare you to check out the following albums (or individual tracks thereof), as examples of musicians playing with the freedom, invention and group creativity of jazz, but with the sounds and attitude of rock/RnB:
Miles Davis: In A Silent Way, Tribute To Jack Johnson (John McLaughlin on gtr)
Weather Report: Sweetnighter
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (John McLaughlin on gtr)
Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow, Wired
Billy Cobham: Spectrum (Tommy Bolan on gtr)
Santana: Caravanserai
Herbie Hanc--k: Chameleon
Crusaders: 1 (Larry Carlton on gtr)
Larry Coryell: Introducing The Eleventh House
In terms of how best to get into jazz in general, it is so hard to recommend specific albums/artists as jazz has been around for a century - twice as long as rock - and every decade it metamorphosed into something else (e.g. 1930s = swing, 1940s = bebop, 1950s = cool jazz/hard bop, 1960s = soul jazz/free jazz/post-bop, 1970s = jazz-rock/jazz-funk, plus a huge upsurge in European folk/classical influenced jazz, etc etc - this is a v simplifed version BTW!)
Furthermore, the guitar has never been at the forefront of jazz (unlike rock/blues), so the music is often of less interest to guitarists than to say, sax/trumpet/piano players.
I think a lot of rock/blues based guitarists probably get into jazz via the 1970s electric jazz/rock route (maybe with some added 70s prog), first allowing their ears to appreciate the wider melodic/harmonic/rhythmic horizons of jazz in a rock-sounding setting (the Jeff Beck/Santana albums are a good example of this) and then finding that the familiar structures of rock start to feel restrictive and predictable thereby wanting to get into jazzier territory.
A few may also go headlong into jazz proper by one day hearing something that is so beautiful to listen to that it is irresistible (such as Bill Evans' 'My Foolish Heart', Keith Jarrett's 'Expectations', Miles Davis' 'Flamenco Sketches') and captures the heart immediately.
I know I've gone a fair bit here - sorry about that - but I just wanted to slightly redress the balance on what is always very much a rock/metal/indie dominated forum (not that I have a problem with that - I love my rock too!)
