He was also ahead of everything else being recorded in the entire rock pantheon. Compare his work on the early Butterfield stuff to what "guitar gods" Beck, Page, Clapton, and Hendrix were doing (at least on record) in '65-early '66. Hendrix got there soon afterward, and arguably Jorma Kaukonen did also., Page got there eventually. I'd argue that Clapton and Beck actually never got there (though with the Yardbirds, Beck may have been state of the art prior to Bloomfield, but Bloomfield blew him away). The quailitative difference between the Bloomfield side of 'Super Session' and the Stephen Stills side is stunning.
Listen to the title track of "East-West", and consider this was recorded in July 1966!