After all the well-deserved accolades were given and the mourners retreated from the memorial service for two of the finest musicians to ever come out of Gary, Florence Kinsey wanted to talk about the love and funny frustrations that come with tight family bonds.
The ex-wife and forever best friend of Ralph Kinsey, who was the drummer for Blues band powerhouse The Kinsey Report from age 12, said she and Ralph had been looking at old family photos for some time before he died when he asked her if she noticed anything about them. She kind of looked at him and said, “No?”
Ralph, she said, then pointed out that in every single one, there was Donald — his younger brother by a year and 23 days — sneaking into the background with his infectious smile, making sure he was part of the action. When Donald died 21 days after Ralph, she couldn’t help but smile through the heartbreak.
“I thought to myself, Ralph’s going to be sitting there thinking, ‘Man, I can’t even have my own memorial service without him butting in’,” she said, smiling wistfully.
Hundreds of family, friends and music lovers gathered at the Love Feast Church of God in Christ in Gary Saturday morning to celebrate Ralph, the stalwart drummer who believed in education, and Donald, the fun-loving guitarist who set out to travel the world only to bring what he learned back to his family. Ralph died Jan. 16 at 71 after a short bout with cancer, and Donald, 70, died Feb. 6 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Before their dad, Lester “Big Daddy” Kinsey, put the band together with them and youngest brother Kenny, they were, by all accounts, an extremely close family raised in the church. Longtime friend Bruce Carey, who graduated from West Side High School with Ralph, recalled many a conversation with Big Daddy and his own father where they implored their sons to learn about their history.
“These men gave us our foundation,” Carey said of their fathers. “It was a turbulent time in the 1960s, 1970s, and they were listening to Curtis Mayfield and ‘People Get Ready,’ and Gil Scott Heron and ‘The Message.’”
That love of history stuck with Ralph who, when he wasn’t touring, didn’t allow his kids to enjoy Saturday morning cartoons, according to Florence Kinsey, a fact confirmed by daughter Naomi Kinsey.
“No, there were no cartoons. We had to sit and read, and either write a book report or retell the story to him before we could go about our day,” Naomi Kinsey said. “We always wrote, and I know that gift came from him.
“We talked and talked and talked about education all the time, to the point that I was like, ‘I don’t want to talk about all that with you, because I talk about it all the time with other people.’ But he would’ve been a history teacher if he wasn’t a musician, if he’d have had more time.”
Carey recalled another time when Donald had returned from Jamaica, where he played a stint with Bob Marley and the Wailers. He was living at 37th and Monroe, and he and Carey were hanging out one evening when Donald busted out his reggae reworking of Chuck Berry’s monster hit, “Johnny B. Goode.” Carey was enthralled and told him he had to get someone to let him play it, he said.
Sure enough, several months later, he heard the Peter Tosh version, he said.
“He loved playing with Bob Marley, but he really loved playing with Peter Tosh, so when I heard it, I said, ‘Donald arranged that! I was there!’” Carey said. “But radio didn’t play it, and Black radio didn’t play it, so you really had to be in the know to hear it.”
With his style of playing — lefthanded and upside-down — Donald never failed to blow away other musicians, Carey said. And again, the lessons came from Big Daddy, said Florence Kinsey.
“Ralph would tell me that Big Daddy would come home from watching a show, and he would wake all the boys up to learn the new song, but they would play in the dark,” Florence Kinsey said. “Then they would go back to sleep for a couple hours and head to school. But that’s how they learned, and that was smart of Big Daddy to have them do it that way.”
Family friend and church member Cohane Habbakuk Levy also remembered playing in the Kinseys’ garage as a child, with Big Daddy always supervising. He did let his boys go out into the world to grow — Donald to Jamaica and Ralph to the U.S. Air Force — but when Big Daddy said to come home, that’s how it went, he said.
“You can travel around the world, but you can’t find the multitude of talent than that of here, and it came out of Love Feast (church),” Levy said. “They were brought here not because of the Blues, but because of love.”
Kenny Kinsey, who at 61 is the youngest of the Kinseys, said he and the family have always been proud to tell the world they’re from Gary. For him, growing up is filled with people convening in their basement every weekend and just jamming away.
“We took the Blues and blended in funk, rock and reggae. It’s our own sound, and we were fortunate to have a label (Alligator Records out of Chicago) that never boxed us in,” he said. “And my brothers definitely had an influence on me. Seeing who they played with, you don’t realize how much you absorb. Being on the road with your dad and your brothers, just in a big mobile home traveling the world, it’s the best education someone could have. I’m so thankful for it.”
Andy Orgodzinski, who played second guitar with The Kinsey Report until 2012, met Donald when Donald was living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2005 and put out a call for local musicians to play out. He wasn’t asked to play with The Kinsey Report as much as it was Donald just assumed he was in when Orgodzinski called after he’d heard the other second guitarist left the band.
“Donald saw something in me to where I could fit,” Orgodzinski said with tears in his eyes. “It’s so hard to sum up what I learned from them, but it made me a better player.”
Ralph Edward “Woody” Kinsey is survived by his children, Crystal (Tim) Bradley, Ralph “Rah” Kinsey Jr., Fred (Leketia) Kinsey, Ayanna (Dwayne) Troutman, Naomi Kinsey, and Isaac Kinsey; ex-wife Florence Kinsey; grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his son, Ira Kinsey.
Donald Edward Kinsey is survived by his daughter, Latisha Kinsey-Blanchard; partner, Cathy Comforti; three grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by wife, Sharon; and Ralph.
Kenneth Kinsey survives both Ralph and Donald.
The brothers were preceded in death by grandparents, Lester Sr. And Fannie Bell Kinsey; and parents, Lester “Big Daddy” and Christine Kinsey.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
