Kermit Ruffins

Whether listening to a track on his newest CD or engaging him in conversation one word springs immediately to mind to describe Kermit Ruffins. Passion. The 44-year-old New Orleans native lives it, plays it and sings about it, and nowhere is it more evident than when he discusses his craft – the jazz that lured him in as a teenager and continues to whet his appetite three decades later. “From the time I wake up in the morning, I’m itching for my next show to happen.” He explained, “It can’t get here fast enough for me. I think that’s the basic ingredient of New Orleans music. It’s really just happy music.” Ruffins still vividly recalled the moment when Armstrong – a New Orleans icon – became the be-all and end-all of his musical universe. “When I started out playing, it was down on the streets in the French Quarter for tips, and we’d sit and watch all the guys in suits going inside to play in the clubs,” he said. “I was watching one day when, all of a sudden, I heard one trumpet on the juke box. I was 19 or 20 years old, and it was Louis doing a solo on ‘When You’re Smiling.’ “I was so overwhelmed that I went that day and bought all the CDs of his that I could find. I started to watch videos all the time, and from then on, whenever my friends got together to play, we’d be drinking, eating barbecue and watching Louis Armstrong.” Ruffins’ legacy-in-progress includes co-founding the Rebirth Brass Band in 1983. Rebirth’s creation was inspired by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band – which was credited with bringing influences of funk and contemporary bebop into New Orleans style brass bands. In 1992, he founded the Barbecue Swingers, a traditional jazz quintet that mixes music with another of his true loves, food. That combination helped create his first release for Basin Street Records – The Barbecue Swingers Live – recorded at Tipitina’s in New Orleasn in 1997. And now, hundreds of shows and barbecues later, prolonging the status of jazz in New Orleans is among Ruffins’ pet projects. As of April 2010, Ruffins plays himself in the HBO series named "Treme’” for the neighborhood and lifestyle essential to its musical and cultural history. The area was also inspiration for his most recent CD, “Livin’ a Treme’ Life” – his seventh for Basin Street Records. “Kermit Ruffins is one of the prime reasons why New Orleans is mending post-Katrina, bringing his good-time music to the people as an entertainer,” said All Music Guide’s Michael G. Nastos on Billboard.com, “As a trumpet player and singer of heritage jazz, soul, and popular music, he's uplifting the spirit of Crescent City dwellers who are slowly but surely rebuilding their neighborhoods. This CD further defines that role.” Somewhere, the “next” Kermit Ruffins can take notes from a contented mentor. “I sit back all the time,” he said, “and it amazes me to think, ‘Man, we did it. We made it.’”