Jerry Portnoy was born in Chicago in 1943 and brought up in the vicinity of the Maxwell Street market, where his father owned a rug store. There, among the haggling customers and traders, many of the original blues players who had drifted to Chicago from the south would set up and play for whatever loose change was dropped at their feet. Even so, it was only at the age of 25, and after failed attempts to master several other instruments, that Portnoy discovered his aptitude for playing the harmonica. Just five years after first picking up the instrument, he was off touring with Muddy Waters.

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