Walter Parazaider

Walter Joseph Parazaider was born in Maywood, Illinois, on 14 March 1945. He began playing the clarinet at the age of nine. As a teenager his talent was steered toward a career as a professional orchestral musician. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical clarinet performance from DePaul University in Chicago.

He married JacLynn Bryce Goudie in 1966. The couple later had two daughters, Laura and Felicia.

Inspired by the Beatles recording Got to Get You Into My Life, Parazaider wanted a rock and roll band with horns. Early practice sessions at his mother's house included childhood friends Terry Kath on guitar and Danny Seraphine on drums. Future Chicago producer James William Guercio also became involved.

The band started as The Big Thing, then Chicago Transit Authority, and finally Chicago after Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone), Robert Lamm (keyboards) and Peter Cetera (bass) joined. Parazaider's main role was woodwinds on Pankow's horn arrangements. He was not a prolific writer for the group. His compositional credits included It Better End Soon: 2nd Movement, Free Country, Aire, Devil's Sweet and Window Dreamin'.

He played the well known flute solo on Colour My World, a favourite slow-dance song at American high school proms in the 1970s. The 1973 hit Just You 'n' Me features his soprano saxophone solo. Chicago sold tens of millions of records and remained a major touring act. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

In 2008 DePaul University awarded Parazaider an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. In 2009 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia recognised him as a Signature Sinfonian with fellow Chicago members. He continued to tour extensively until he retired from the road in 2017 because of a heart condition. The band later listed him on its Tribute to Founding Members page.

Parazaider and JacLynn Bryce Goudie married in 1966 and were together for nearly sixty years. They had two daughters, Laura and Felicia. After leaving the road he lived in the Las Vegas area. In April 2021, four years after retiring from touring, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and said he was working hard with medical care and would not give up.

Walter Parazaider died on 17 June 2026 under hospice care in Henderson, Nevada, aged 81. The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease. His wife JacLynn was with him. Chicago announced his death the same day and said a rock and roll band with horns had been Walt's idea, and that the band had first rehearsed in the basement of his mother's home. Warner Music Group also issued a tribute. He was survived by JacLynn and daughters Laura and Felicia.

Parazaider helped invent the horn-driven rock sound that made Chicago a defining American band of the late twentieth century. His flute on Colour My World and soprano sax on Just You 'n' Me remain among the group's most recognised instrumental moments. Bandmates credited him with forming the group and booking its earliest club dates. Through Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and decades of radio play, his woodwind work stays part of how listeners hear Chicago.