Search - Kermit Ruffins :: Big Easy

Here, trumpeter and vocalist Kermit Ruffins has prepared a gumbo of a music that absorbs any influence, yet screams "Big Easy!" He may not have the technical prowess of other Louisiana trumpeters, but they'll never sing about their own funeral and make the listener dance and laugh while doing it, as on "When I Die (You Better Second Line)." Ruffins visits traditional New Orleans with the old standards "Basin Street Blues," "Tiger Rag," and "On the Sunny Side of the Street," and hangs on the modern jazz side with the cooker "Wake Up, Nessie" and a great cover of War's "The World Is a Ghetto." But his hometown is more than just jazz. There's the Latin tinge of "Skokiaan" and that simmering Allen Toussaint/Neville Brothers brand of Big Easy soul that's represented on "Palm Court Strut." For food there's the very cute "Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner" and the title track, an audio tour with culinary delights. Like another great Crescent City trumpeter, Ruffins's taken his horn-blowing gift, grafted it with an undeniably charming gruff singing style, and concentrated on making great records, of which this is one. --Mark Ruffin