Jerry Portnoy (born November 25, 1943, in Evanston, Illinois, United States)[1] is an American harmonica blues musician, who has toured with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton.

He first heard the blues played outside his father's carpet store in the Maxwell Street market in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

[1] Portnoy has performed in twenty-eight foreign countries on six continents, including performances at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Smithsonian, the Newport Jazz Festival and other major jazz and blues festivals worldwide.

He was a Grammy Award nominee in 1996 for his work with the Muddy Waters Tribute Band on their recording You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Dead and Gone, and released an instructional package, Jerry Portnoy's Blues Harmonica Masterclass, in 1997.

Rick Estrin, a leading professional player as well, was quoted in Blues Revue (2002) as saying, "He can get so much sound out of that harp — such a beautiful, just enormous, fat, rich tone.