If you're willing to go a bit further back, then there's always my personal favourite, Django Reinhardt. He was gypsy guitarist who became especially popular in the 1930's with his collaborations with violinist Stephan Grapelli. Because of a fire he was in as a young man, his left indexfinger and middlefinger became solded together, and he used this to his advantage, practically inventing jazz-guitar playing.
Look up a recording of him playing Minor Swing, probably his most famous tune.
Then there's Jelly Roll Morton (incredible pianist who claims he invented Jazz, try Fingerbreaker), John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk (one's a saxophonist, the other's a pianist, both played a lot of improvisational bebop during the 60's, as well as slower more meditative tunes), Ornette Coleman (saxophonist, recognizeable for it's strange crying sound he manage to get it to play).
If you want more big-bandish swing sounds, you've got Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman . Later in the 60's you've got Charles Mingus.
If you want mellow sounds, then you could do far worse than listening to Miles Davis' performance of Concerto de Aranjuez.
Sorry for posting basically a superficial name-drop list :p , some of these may be more given and obvious, so I tried to toss in some more obscure names that don't always get the recognition they deserve.
If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.
