Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald is one of those musicians whose fingerprints are all over rock history, yet he rarely got the marquee credit he deserved. I think about the opening of "21st Century Schizoid Man" — that ferocious, almost violent sax line he laid down as a founding member of King Crimson in 1968 — and it still sounds like nothing else from that era. Then he helped launch Foreigner in 1976 and suddenly he's co-writing "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold as Ice," massive FM radio staples a world away from prog. The range is genuinely remarkable. He passed in February 2022, and what strikes me most looking back is how quietly essential he was — the kind of player who shapes the sound of two legendary bands and somehow stays humble about the whole thing. Rock music is measurably better because Ian McDonald existed.

Name (English)

Ian McDonald

Name (Japanese)

イアン・マクドナルド

Reading

いあん・まくどなるど

Born

June 25, 1946 – February 9, 2022

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Dog

Origin

Osterley, United Kingdom

Occupation

saxophonist / guitarist / multi-instrumentalist / musician / composer

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%82%AF%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89%20(%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3)

Tags

• saxophonist
• guitarist
• multi-instrumentalist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.