Happy Birthday to Ian McDonald. Ian will be known to most fans of King Crimson for his amazing work on their debut album back in 1969.
After quitting Crimso along with Michael Giles, the pair recorded an album but poor sales and uncertainty about what to do next effectively nixed any further plans to work together. Ian’s expansive musicality saw him appearing with people as diverse as Keith Tippett’s avant-jazz orchestra Centipede, Marc Bolan’s glam-pop confection T.Rex (Electric Warrior) and folk duo Gay and Terry Woods. After a brief return to King Crimson (for Red, the last KC album of the 70s) McDonald went to live in New York and in 1976 helped ex-Spooky Tooth guitarist Mick Jones found the stratospherically successful AOR band, Foreigner.
In more recent times Ian toured with Steve Hackett in 1996 with a band that included John Wetton, and 2001 released his first solo album, Drivers Eyes on Hackett’s Camino label. 2002 saw him reunited with Michael Giles as they supervised the remastering of their 1971 McDonald & Giles album, as well as joining forces with Mel Collins, Peter Giles and Jakko Jakszyk as part of the 21st Century Schizoid Band.
Ian was recently in the UK on family business but took time to record flute parts for Jakko’s forthcoming solo album, The Bruised Romantic Glee Club.
