IMO, his best work was with the trio and shakti. mahavishnu was awesome, but there was also some serious wanking going on there.
Excellent guitar player! Extrapolation, Devotion, and Live at the Royal Festival Hall are probably my favorite solo albums of his. I got to see the Trio in SF about 7 years ago, what a show; I would have loved to have seen Shakti or Mahavishnu, but alas...
Remembering Shakti came through a bit over a year ago. Great night. Obviously no electronic crutches to the playing.