I hadn't started playing bass when he died, so I missed out by a few years. I became exposed to his talents via the music he was involved in, rather than chasing out recordings because of his involvement. Pre-internet, I buy getting records I liked, and had the 'who's that on bass' thing.
That came afterwards, trying to find anything his played on!
On a side note, the Michael Jackson program on Channel 5 last night, they interviewed Bobby Colomby because of his affiliation with Epic records. He was heavily involved in getting Jaco to a wider audience, so quite timely he was on this week.