TABASCO® Pepperfest Music Stage: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers

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Kermit cooking it up outside of Tipitina's, New Orleans, LA

Swing is the thing in New Orleans today, and no one swings harder than trumpet man, vocalist, band leader and best selling Basin Street recording artist Kermit Ruffins. Fronting his great quintet, the Barbecue Swingers, or leading his blasting big band, Ruffins plays and sings with an effortless grace and charm that makes people of all persuasions feel perfectly at ease.

A native – and still a resident – of New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward, Kermit's bad attitude as a lad got him bounced from school to school until he wound up at Clark High in the swinging Sixth Ward, where Ruffins at once began to immerse himself in the unique cultural construct known as the historic Treme musical district.

Ruffins first flourished as featured soloist and singer with the Re-Birth Brass Band, but a weekly jam band Kermit started up in the early 90's at the Little People's Place on Barracks Street in Treme, a tiny mid-block watering hole owned by his mother-in-law and her sister, gave rise to his current vehicle, the wildly popular Barbecue Swingers.

Kermit loves to cook off-stage as well, and the band's musical engagements are often delightfully enhanced by spectacular pre-show cook-outs on the sidewalk outside the club, featuring big pots of red beans and rice, turkey necks or filé gumbo, with barbecued chicken, sausages or ribs added for special occasions – all prepared with special care by the able hands of the trumpet man himself. Kermit also caters his terrific grub to the crowds at the Sunday afternoon second-lines in the Treme, following along in his pick-up truck with a grill smoking on the back and a tub of cold Buds close at hand.



	Kermit at Vaughn's in the Ninth Ward

Kermit's fun-loving approach to life and music is beautifully showcased on his current Basin Street Release, SWING THIS!, and on BARBECUE SWINGERS LIVE, recorded in performance at Tipitina's in the fall of 1997. He's also notched three earlier CDs as a leader for Justice Records – World on a String, the Big Butter & Egg Man, and Hold On Tight – plus several albums as a member of the Re-Birth Brass Band.

Whether he's blowing his horn, singing his songs, or cooking up a storm on the streets, Kermit Ruffins is a one-of-a-kind treasure unique to New Orleans. You can hear it in every phrase he plays, and you can taste in the savory gumbo and turkey necks he dishes out to the people who have come to hear him. They know the Big Boss with the Hot Sauce is on the scene, and they're all set to have a real good time.