{"id":2360,"date":"2026-06-17T17:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2026-06-17T17:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:07:21","slug":"walter-parazaider-chicago-co-founder-flutist-and-sax-player-dies-at-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2360","title":{"rendered":"Walter Parazaider, Chicago Co-Founder, Flutist and Sax Player, Dies at 81"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tWalter Parazaider, one of the co-founding members of Chicago who was with the band from its start in 1967 through his retirement in 2017, died Wednesday, family members announced. He had been suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s disease for six years.<\/p>\n

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\n\tParazaider played reed instruments in the band for that 50-year run, and may be most easily recognized for his flute solo in \u201cColour My World,\u201d though he was more often found on the saxophone.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis daughter, Felicia Parazaider, reported the death in a Facebook post in the early morning hours Wednesday. \u201cI didn\u2019t get back in time. My father, my hero, is gone. He went peacefully about 20 minutes ago,\u201d wrote the daughter, a minister and \u201cradical sacred activist.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s no more pain. No more struggle. I psychically knew I wasn\u2019t going to make it back in time. And I knew that it would be just my mom and him. It\u2019s how it was in the beginning. Just the two of them. And so it should\u2019ve been in the end. Thank you for loving my father, even if you didn\u2019t personally know him. I know that many of you loved him. I\u2019m in shock and disbelief and yet not at all. This was the worst six years. The hardest season of my life. And I\u2019m so grateful that my dad is not suffering anymore. I love you poppy, my Pal. You coloured our world. God bless you, you dear soul. I love you beyond thoughts and words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParazaider had retired from the band in 2017, not long after the group celebrated its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. At the time, he was said to be dealing with heart issues.<\/p>\n

\n\tParazaider had revealed his most debilitating condition in a statement on the group\u2019s website 2021. \u201cFive months ago, I was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d he wrote then. \u201cNeedless to say, my wife, daughters and myself were shocked and devastated. It has taken a while to process this news and the fact is, we still are. The good news is we have a wonderful medical facility here and I have a very good doctor. I am working hard and not going to give up. With new treatments and therapy, along with my family\u2019s love and support, I feel very positive about the future. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I wish you and your families all the best in 2021 and always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was a college student at Chicago\u2019s DePaul University, earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in classical clarinet performance, when he formed a band, the Missing Links, with guitarist\/vocalist Terry Kath and drummer Danny Seraphine, and hooked up with their future producer, Jimmy Guercio. Then, under the name the Big Thing, Parazaider, Kath, Seraphine, trumpet player Lee Loughnane, trombonist James Pankow and keyboard player\/vocalist Robert Lamm \u2014 set out to combine a core rock \u2018n\u2019 roll combo with a prominent horn section in a way that hadn\u2019t been done before, with the arguable exception of Blood, Sweat & Tears, which came up in the same era.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think for some guys in the group, it was harder to cope with the success than others,\u201d Parazaider said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there were any of us that sat down around my kitchen table that day in February of \u201967 and said, \u2018Hey, our goal is to be famous.’\u201d He was referring to a meeting at his parents\u2019 house on Feb 15, 1967 in which they formally conceptualized the band.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe sat around my kitchen table and said: \u2018Let\u2019s make a band that\u2019s the best in the world.\u2019 My idea was to make horns an integral part of a rock band,\u201d he told Classic Rock. \u201cIn that sense, we blazed the trail. We had lofty ideas and hopes. We were young and ignorant.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn 1968, they were joined by Peter Cetera, changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority and signed with Columbia Records. Their debut album, a two-LP set, came out the following year. The group\u2019s moniker had been shorted to just Chicago by the time they released a sophomore album.<\/p>\n

\n\tFounding member Kath accidentally shot himself in 1978,, not long after \u201cChicago XI\u201d came out in 1977, and his loss has often been cited as one of the reasons the band subsequently pursued a more balladic direction. Their work with producer David Foster put the spotlight more squarely on songs sung and written by Cetera in the early 1980s, before the singer went solo in 1985. Jason Scheff, son of Elvis Presley\u2019s bassist Jerry Scheff, replaced Cetera as bassist\/singer until 2016.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTerry and I were teenage friends and it was devastating for me,\u201d he said of his partner\u2019s 1977 death. \u201cWhen I heard the news on the phone, I almost went to my knees. It was like being hit with a sledgehammer. We thought, \u2018Maybe this is the way the band should end.\u2019 We had fan mail saying: \u2018Please, don\u2019t stop the band now.\u2019 That really helped us. But I have to be honest \u2013 there are some things you never get over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLamm and Pankow have retired from the band. Loughnane is now the final original member still on board.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group\u2019s commercial success in later years eclipsed the band\u2019s experimental origins. \u201cI don\u2019t think we get the respect we should,\u201d he admitted. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s the mother hen in me. But when I think about it, what do I want? Selling over a hundred million records is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen her father\u2019s time appeared to be at hand a few days ago, Felicia Parazaider imagined him being reunited with Terry Kath in the afterlife soon. \u201cMy dad is making the journey home,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt looks like 1-3 days of his beautiful being blessing us in this earthly plane. And then he\u2019s probably going to play some music, laugh that great big laugh, don that magnificent smile, free of pain and suffering finally, in the next place. Maybe with Terry, my Uncle, his folks, all his relations. Mitakuye Oyasin. This is it. The moment I feel I have been readying myself for these last 6 years. Maybe my whole life. So if you love my father, do something for me, play some music. Anything. And play it loud. He loved doing that. Let\u2019s bless him up y\u2019all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis wife, JacLynn, told TMZ that \u201cwe were married for 59 years and we had 59 wonderful years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Walter Parazaider, a founding member of Chicago known for his sax and flute solos, died at 81 after dealing with Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2007],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-chicago"],"yoast_head":"\nWalter Parazaider, Chicago Co-Founder, Flutist and Sax Player, Dies at 81 - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2360\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walter Parazaider, Chicago Co-Founder, Flutist and Sax Player, Dies at 81 - 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