Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is a
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
trumpeter, singer and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
from
New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He has been heavily influenced by
Louis ArmstrongLouis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
,
Louis JordanLouis Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years...
and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of his songs with his own vocals, and he says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a fortissimo C note. Most of his bands perform New Orleans jazz standards, though he also composes many of his own pieces.
Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is a
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
trumpeter, singer and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
from
New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He has been heavily influenced by
Louis ArmstrongLouis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
,
Louis JordanLouis Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years...
and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of his songs with his own vocals, and he says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a fortissimo C note. Most of his bands perform New Orleans jazz standards, though he also composes many of his own pieces.
Jon ParelesJon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s a contributing writer and...
of the New York Times wrote of Ruffins in a July 16, 2001 article, stating that "Mr. Ruffins is an unabashed entertainer who plays trumpet with a bright, silvery tone, sings with off-the-cuff charm and never gets too abstruse in his material".
Early life
Kermit started playing trumpet in 8th grade at Lawless Junior High School in the
Ninth Ward of New OrleansThe Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana that is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans....
. He attended Joseph S. Clark Senior High School in New Orleans' 6th Ward. In high school, he played a little bit of
classical musicClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
at the behest of a strict band teacher. Ruffins developed an appreciation for cooking through his grandmother, observing her movements in the kitchen growing up.
Rebirth Brass Band
He co-founded the
Rebirth Brass BandThe Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1982 by tuba/sousaphone player Philip Frazier, his brother, bass drummer, Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, and other school marching band members from Joseph S. Clark Senior High School in New Orleans’ Tremé...
in 1983 while attending Clark High School, also in the Tremé neighborhood. Ruffins made his first recordings with the Rebirth in 1984. The group was inspired by another New Orleans brass band called The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, a band of slightly older musicians credited with bringing influences of funk and contemporary bebop into New Orleans style brass bands. Before they achieved the popularity allowing them to play regularly in local music venues, the Rebirth often
buskedBusking is the practice of performing in public places for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called buskers or street performers. Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining...
around the
French QuarterThe French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest and most famous neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. When La Nouvelle Orléans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it...
for
tipA tip is a voluntary extra payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction. Such payments and their size are a matter of social custom. Tipping varies among cultures and by service industry...
s. They soon became a houseband at the Glass House, previously the Dirty Dozen's home venue. The Rebirth once had a gig in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
at Lone Star Café, but were hassled by
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
for having no permit when they began marching outdoors as they always did in New Orleans.
Barbecue Swingers
Ruffins founded the Barbecue Swingers in 1992, a traditional jazz
quintetA quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
. Kermit is famous for cooking
barbecueBarbecue or barbeque is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal or a propane gas grill, and may...
at his shows. Every Thursday since the early 1990s, Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers have played a weekly show at Vaughan's Bar in the
Bywater neighborhoodBywater is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Bywater District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Florida Avenue to the north, the Industrial Canal to the east, the Mississippi River to the south and Franklin Avenue, St. Claude Avenue...
which is very popular with both locals and visitors. His 2007 album
Live at Vaughan's was recorded during one of his performances at the establishment.
He has also performed at hundreds of funerals during his career in The Crescent City. In 2003 the band received a nomination at the Big Easy Entertainment Awards, which recognizes local talents.
Venues
- Austin City Limits Music Festival
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival in Austin, Texas's Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages, including rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass, and attracts a crowd of more then 65,000...
- French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest and most famous neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. When La Nouvelle Orléans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it...
Festival
- New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
- Strings In The Mountains Music Festival
- Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival
- Tabasco
Tabasco is a state in Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Veracruz to the west, Chiapas to the south, and Campeche to the north-east. To the east Tabasco borders with the Petén department of Guatemala, and to the north with the Bay of Campeche...
Pepperfest
Personal life
On April 14, 2007, he married his fiancée Karen "Juicee" James onstage during his performance at the New Orleans French Quarter Festival. This was the couples' second vow exchange of the day as they had earlier been married in a
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
ceremony at St Peter Claver Church. A reception was held at The Parish at The
House of BluesHouse of Blues is a chain of music halls and restaurants founded in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock, and Dan Aykroyd. House of Blues is a venue for live music and southern-inspired cuisine that emphasizes "inspiration of music for the soul".-Overview:The first HOB opened its doors...
. The couple had their first daughter together a year earlier, aptly named Kaylin Orleans Ruffins. Ruffins also has children from a previous marriage.
Ruffins has said he loves drinking Bud Light beer and smoking
cannabisCannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa L., Cannabis indica Lam., and Cannabis ruderalis Janisch. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for medicinal purposes, and as a...
, stating that
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
is his second favorite place to perform outside of New Orleans due to its many legal
coffee shopsCoffeeshops are establisments in the Netherlands where the sale of cannabis for personal consumption by the public is tolerated by the local authorities . They are most commonly found in the Netherlands....
that sell premium grade cannabis and
hashishHashish is a preparation of cannabis composed of the compressed stalked resin glands called trichomes, collected from the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than other parts of the plant such as the buds or the leaves...
. He is also a good friend—and sometime local competitor of—
Irvin MayfieldIrvin Mayfield, Jr. is an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He has been serving as Cultural Ambassador of the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana since 2003. He co-founded and has co-led the Afro-Cuban jazz group Los Hombres Calientes since 1998. Their debut album won Billboard's 2000...
, a fellow New Orleans trumpeter.
Discography
| Year |
Album |
Notes |
Label |
| 1993 |
"World On A String" |
debut album |
Justice Records |
| 1994 |
"The Big Butter and Egg Man" |
- |
Justice Records |
| 1996 |
"Hold On Tight" |
- |
Justice Records |
| 1998 |
"The Barbecue Swingers Live" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
| 1999 |
"Swing This" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
| 2001 |
"1533 St. Philip Street" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
| 2002 |
"Big Easy" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
| 2005 |
"Throwback" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
| 2007 |
"Live at Vaughan's" |
- |
Basin Street Records |
Awards
- 2003 - Offbeat
OffBeat is a monthly music magazine in New Orleans, Louisiana first published in 1988. It mainly focuses on the music scene of New Orleans and Louisiana. It covers wide range of local music including R&B, blues, brass bands, jazz, cajun music, zydeco, to rock....
's Best of The Beat Awards in Best Traditional Jazz Band or Performer for Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers
External links