Lester J. Kinsey Jr., (March 18, 1927 – April 3, 2001) known as Big Daddy Kinsey, was an American

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

singer, guitarist and harmonica player.

Biography

He was born near

Pleasant Grove, Mississippi Pleasant Grove is an unincorporated community in Panola County, Mississippi. Pleasant Grove is approximately west of Sardis, along Mississippi Highway 315. The Pleasant Grove Methodist Church and Pleasant Grove Cemetery are located there. The ...

. He grew up playing

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

; his father was a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

in the

Church of God in Christ The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is a Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly Bl ...

and disapproved of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

music. However, Kinsey started playing guitar at parties in Mississippi, before moving in 1944 to

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the ...

, where he worked in a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

. He married and served in the military before returning to work in Gary and raising a family.Monta Maso
"Lester Kinsey: A Biography"
mswritersandmusicians.com; retrieved October 20, 2016. In the late 1950s, he started a family band, Big Daddy Kinsey and His Fabulous Sons, with his children, but it dissolved in the early 1970s, and Lester Kinsey began playing harmonica with a local band, the Soul Brothers. His second son, guitarist

Donald Kinsey Donald Kinsey (born May 12, 1953 in Gary, Indiana, United States) is an American guitarist and singer, best known as a member of the Word Sound and Power Band, the reggae backing group for Peter Tosh. Kinsey is one of three sons of the late ...

, played in

Albert King Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps b ...

's band in the 1970s, and later joined

Bob Marley and the Wailers Bob Marley and the Wailers (previously known as The Wailers, and prior to that The Wailing Rudeboys, The Wailing Wailers and The Teenagers) were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley (Robert ...

, but in 1984 rejoined his father and brothers Ralph and Kenneth to form

The Kinsey Report The Kinsey Report is a Gary, Indiana based band, established in 1984 by the brothers Donald, Ralph, and Kenneth Kinsey, plus a family friend, Ron Prince. As Big Daddy Kinsey and the Kinsey Report, they effectively backed their father, Big Daddy K ...

. The band featured Lester "Big Daddy" Kinsey as

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

ist and harmonica player. They signed for the

Rooster Blues Rooster Blues is an American independent record label founded in 1980. The label is dedicated to blues music from the Mississippi Delta. Rooster Blues was co-founded by Jim O'Neal in Chicago, and initially released 14 albums by South Side blues m ...

label, and in 1985 with

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the ''Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using hi ...

, becoming "one of the hottest attractions in contemporary blues". In the early 1990s Kinsey recorded the album ''I Am the Blues'', featuring such musicians as

Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray V ...

James Cotton James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. ...

, and

Pinetop Perkins Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Life ...

. As well as leading his band, Lester Kinsey also established a bus company running charter trips to

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

s in the southern States. He developed

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

, and died in Gary in 2001 aged 74. His sons have continued to perform as

Albums

*1985: ''Bad Situation'' *1990: ''Can't Let Go'' *1993: ''I Am the Blues'' *1995: ''Ramblin' Man''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinsey, Big Daddy 1927 births 2001 deaths People from Panola County, Mississippi African-American guitarists American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers American blues harmonica players Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in Indiana Blues musicians from Mississippi 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Mississippi 20th-century African-American male singers