Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series. On this episode, we talk with Blues Harmonica & Guitar Virtuoso Harrell Davenport on the 2025 Kansas City Jazz & Blues Festival.

Known as “Young Rell,” this 18-year-old phenom from Vicksburg, Mississippi played his first gig in Chicago—earning over 165,000 views and 4,000 shares of his performance on Facebook. He picked up the harmonica and guitar at age seven, and today he’s got a style all his own.

Harrell is bringing his electrifying sound to Kansas City’s Jazz & Blues Festival revival on October 3–4, 2025 at Legends Field, home of the KC Monarchs. We talk about this upcoming gig, the deep history of KC’s blues and jazz, and his rapidly rising career.

🎟️ Get tickets and info: 2025 KC Jazz & Blues Fest

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Joe Dimino Podcaster/Artist

Joe Dimino has been writing & creating in a variety of capacities since his college days at the University of Missouri-Kansas City somewhere around 1993. If you are keeping score, that would be about 29 years+. It all began at UMKCs University News as a Sports Writer & turned into a myriad of expressive avenues. Inventing poems, art, video & audio has always been in the proverbial cards.