Lester Davenport drew his principal share of blues recognition before 1992 from a single 1955 Chess date with Bo Diddley on which he played harp, yielding the songs “Pretty Thing” and “Bring It to Jerome,” and from a long subsequent tenure as harmonica mainstay in the multi-generational Kinsey Report, the Gary, Indiana, ensemble.
The situation shifted once Earwig issued his own album, When the Blues Hit You, finally giving the veteran Chicago bluesman a recording he could claim outright.
He reached Chicago in 1945 at fourteen and promptly absorbed the sounds around him, frequenting sets by Arthur “Big Boy” Spires, Snooky Pryor, and Homesick James; the last of these three welcomed the teenager to jam sessions and schooled him in the music’s finer points.
Work with Spires and James paved the way for a brief stint alongside Bo Diddley that included a New York engagement at the Apollo Theater.
During the 1960s Davenport led his own group while holding a day job as a paint sprayer, remaining active on the West Side until he joined the Kinseys in the 1980s.
The nickname “Mad Dog” arose from his youthful habit of roaming the bandstand and sounding a few notes on every instrument in reach; the routine supplied the tag, and his unrelenting attack on the harp sealed it.
