Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trumpeter, singer, and composer from

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He has been influenced by

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

and

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...

and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often accompanies his songs with his own vocals. Most of his bands perform New Orleans jazz standards though he also composes many of his own pieces.

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "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

He started playing trumpet in 8th grade at Lawless Junior High School in the

Ninth Ward of New Orleans The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is b ...

. He attended Joseph S. Clark High School in the 6th Ward and St Peter Claver Church in

Tremé Tremé ( ) is a neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Tremé" is often rendered as Treme, and the neighborhood is sometimes called by its more formal French name, the Faubourg Tremé; it is listed in the New Orleans City Planning Districts as ...

. In high school, he played a little bit of classical music at the behest of a strict band teacher. He developed an appreciation for cooking from his grandmother, observing her movements in the kitchen.

Career

Rebirth Brass Band

Ruffins co-founded the

Rebirth Brass Band The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Cla ...

in 1983 while attending Clark High School in the

neighborhood. He made his first recordings with the Rebirth band in 1984. The group was inspired by

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is an American brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen incorporated funk and bebop into the traditional ...

, 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 which allowed them to play regularly in local music venues, the Rebirth often busked around the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

for tips. They soon became a "house band" at the Glass House, previously the Dirty Dozen's home venue. Rebirth once had a gig in New York City at

Lone Star Cafe The Lone Star Cafe was a cafe and club in New York City at 61 Fifth at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, from 1976 to 1989.

, but they were hassled by police for having no permit when they began marching outdoors as is common practice in New Orleans.

Barbecue Swingers

Ruffins founded the Barbecue Swingers in 1992, a

traditional jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s, based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent English trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barb ...

quintet A 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 ...

. He is known for cooking on a

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

at his shows. Every Thursday since the early 1990s, they played a show at Vaughan's Bar in the Bywater neighborhood which was very popular with both locals and visitors. His 2007 Basin Street Records release, ''Live at Vaughan's'' was recorded during one of his performances there. They currently play a regular Thursday night gig at Bullet's Sports Bar on AP Tureaud Ave. 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.

Other work

Ruffins is interviewed on screen and appears in performance footage in the 2005 documentary film '' Make It Funky!'', which presents a history of New Orleans music and its influence on

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

. In the film, he performs "

Skokiaan "Skokiaan" is a Popular music, popular Melody, tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Msarurgwa, August Musarurwa in the "Tsaba-tsaba" big band-style that succeeded Marabi. "Skokiaan" ("Chikokiyana" in Shona language, Shona)

" as part of a trumpet challenge with

Irvin Mayfield Irvin Mayfield Jr. (born December 23, 1977) is an American trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. On November 3, 2021, Mayfield was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans public librar ...

and Troy Andrews. He appeared as himself in

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's '' Treme'' as a recurring character. Ruffins also performed a rendition of ''

The Bare Necessities "The Bare Necessities" is a jazz song, written by Terry Gilkyson, from Disney's 1967 animated feature film ''The Jungle Book'', sung by Phil Harris as Baloo and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli. Bill Murray and Neel Sethi, in the same roles, performed ...

'' for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's 2016 remake of ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'', alongside actor

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Bill Murra ...

. Image:RuffinsBarker.jpg, Ruffins (left) with the late

Danny Barker Daniel Moses Barker (January 13, 1909 – March 13, 1994) was an American jazz musician, vocalist, and author from New Orleans. He was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s. One of Barker's earli ...

French Quarter Festival French Quarter Festival is a free, annual music festival held in early April, located in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1983 with the first festival held in 1984, the festival features primarily New Orleans ...

, circa 1990 Image:Kermit_Ruffins4.jpg, Ruffins at Tipitina's, February 2006 Image:KermitRProfile4Aug07Mint.jpg, Ruffins at Old Mint, shown before a set at the

Satchmo SummerFest Satchmo SummerFest (also known as Satchmofest) is an annual music festival held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in celebration of the jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong. It is held in early August in order to coincide with August 4, Armstrong's birthday. ...

, August 2007 Image:KermitRuffins11Nov07FirstValve.jpg, Ruffins playing at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, November 2007

Discography

Filmography

* '' Make It Funky!'' (2005), documentary film * ''

New Orleans Music in Exile ''New Orleans Music in Exile'' is a documentary and music film that was made in 2006 and released on DVD on August 7, 2007. It was directed by Robert Mugge. Summary Essentially, this film tells the story of several New Orleans–based musicians ...

'' (2006), documentary film * '' After the Catch'' (2007) * '' Treme'' (2010) * ''The Real World New Orleans'' (2010) * ''

'' (2016)

Awards

* 2003 – '' Offbeats Best of the Beat Awards in Best Traditional Jazz Band or Performer for Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers

References

External links

Satchmo.com profile

Ruffins quoted in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' about

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

's effect on the New Orleans jazz scene
Not Just Another Thursday Night: Kermit Ruffins And Vaughan's Lounge
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffins, Kermit 1964 births African-American jazz composers American jazz singers American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Jazz musicians from New Orleans Living people Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans Singers from Louisiana 21st-century American trumpeters American male jazz composers American jazz composers 21st-century American male musicians Treme Brass Band members Rebirth Brass Band members African-American Catholics 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American musicians