Kermit Ruffins

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Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is a jazz trumpet player and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan.

Kermit started playing trumpet in 8th grade at Lawless Senior High School in the Tremé neighborhood (Sixth Ward of New Orleans).

He co-founded the Rebirth Brass Band in 1984 while attending Clark High School, also in the Tremé neighborhood. They often played on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter for tips.

He later founded the Barbecue Swingers in 1992, a traditional jazz quintet. Kermit is famous for cooking barbecue at his gigs. Every Thursday for the last 15 years Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers have played a weekly show at Vaughan's bar in the Bywater neighborhood which is very popular with both locals and visitors. He has a live CD "Live at Vaughan's" coming out in New Orleans in March and nationally in April that was recorded at one of his Vaughan's gigs.

[edit] External links

• Satchmo.com profile
• Biography
• Basin Street Records page
• The Best New Orleans Jazz Musicians
• Jazz Musicians Ask if Their Scene Will Survive, Kermit Ruffins quoted in the New York Times about Hurricane Katrina's effect on the New Orleans jazz scene