(Credits: Far Out / Marjut Valakivi / Public Domain)
There aren’t many who will argue with you over the assertion that Jimi Hendrix is the greatest guitarist to have ever lived, or at least up there with the best of them.
Despite his tragically short-lived career, he managed to wow audiences with his electrifying playing style, which while rooted in blues, was far more adventurous, experimental and psychedelic than many of his contemporaries.
With that in mind, there were very few other guitarists in his era who had even mustered up the courage to try and imitate what Hendrix was doing, and it would take a long time for anyone else to come close in that regard.
That doesn’t mean that there weren’t other exceptional guitarists during his time though, it just meant that they were excelling in a completely different fashion compared to how he tended to play. However, if you were to have asked Hendrix himself who he thought was the best guitarist on the planet during the late 1960s, he would have confirmed his adoration for one player who has been sorely overlooked in the pantheon of great musicians.
According to saxophonist Walt Parazaider, who was a founding member of Chicago, Hendrix approached him after a show in Los Angeles in the late ‘60s to sing the praises of the band. “Walt, the horns are like one set of lungs,” he supposedly told him, adding, “and your guitar player is better than me.” The guitarist in question was co-founder Terry Kath, a formidable guitarist whose time in the spotlight was also tragically cut short, much like Hendrix’s, but who never received his flowers in quite the same sense.
Lee Loughnane, the trumpet player in Chicago would also later claim that Kath’s ability knew no bounds, saying that he “could play a rhythm guitar part, a lead guitar part and sing a lead vocal simultaneously,” while adding that he’s never heard another player who was capable of pulling off such a feat in the same manner.
This musical and stylistic versatility was Kath’s strong suit, as the band veered from soft rock to jazz throughout their early years as a group, but while they were commercially successful and noted for their excellent musicianship, Kath was unfortunately never hailed on an individual level.
When Kath died in heartbreaking circumstances in 1978, after having contributed to 11 studio albums with Chicago, the band were left with a gaping hole in their lineup, with his guitar playing being a vital ingredient to their signature genre-blending sound. His dexterity and ability to flit between playing with different purposes and textures was key to their success, and without him, frontman and bassist Peter Cetera was unsure as to whether the band would be able to continue in the same way.
Perhaps it was the occasional subtlety that he used to play with, allowing the rest of the large ensemble in the group to have their moments in the spotlight, that meant that Kath was never recognised with the level of gravitas he deserved to be, but to have someone of Hendrix’s ability praising you for your work, it’s clear that there was something special about what he was capable of.
Related Topics
