Jazz Fest’s first looks and Kermit’s new club

21st January 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Fanatics of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival have undoubtedly already poured over the list of announced artists performing at the 51st edition of the Fest that was released last Thursday. Among those music lovers, the chatter has already begun on who will be at the 2020 event and who has been left out – conversations that are generally equal parts of delight and disappointment.

Some names, like reggae master Jimmy Cliff, just jump off the screen for many people and especially those who “live” the genre. Cliff, whose first Fest performance was in 1981, took reggae music to the world when he stared as Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin in the revolutionary film, “The Harder They Come,” and wrote such classic songs from the soundtrack as “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “Many Rivers to Cross.” Don’t miss the legends really hold true for Jimmy Cliff.

H.E.R. marks the uniquely versatile performer’s first Jazz Fest appearance after wowing the crowds at last year’s Essence Festival. A star who has arisen, she is equally talented as a guitarist who avoids the extraneous, a strong vocalist and mindful lyricist.

Cimafunk, a rather off-the-wall Cuban vocalist who has obviously been inspired by James Brown’s funky style and dance moves, arrives at the Fair Grounds for his initial appearance following two very hot shows last year at Tip’s.

Noting the number of Puerto Rican artists found on the festival’s schedule, it probably can be assumed that this year the Cultural Heritage Pavilion will focus on the music of the island. This was an excellent choice particularly at the time when Puerto Rico and its people have suffered so much.

Modern jazz fans get the nod with the inclusion of the extraordinary pianist and composer Chick Corea, whose recent album Trilogy 2 was magnificent, and the all-star ensemble, The Cookers that has released some sizzling albums of their own.

New Orleans own super stars and super talents like vocalist Aaron Neville and trombonist, trumpeter and vocalist Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews are also onboard. Crescent City native and “Charity Hospital baby,” drummer Harold Brown, will lead the Lowrider Band that boasts four members of the group War that produced hits like “Cisco Kid” and “The World Is a Ghetto.”

Tributes to those great New Orleans musicians like Dr. John, Art Neville and Dave Bartholomew who have passed will surely provide moments of sadness and joy. That is the power of music that will fill the Fair Grounds for eight days – April 23 through April 26 and April 30 through May 3, 2020. Choose your favs at www.nojazzfest.com.

Kermit’s 9th Ward Juke Joint

When Kermit Ruffins opened his new club, Kermit’s 9th Ward Juke Joint, late in 2019, it marked the fifth time he took on such a venture. “I just love freaking barrooms,” says the always affable Ruffins who will continue to run Kermit’s Treme Mother-In-Law Lounge along with the just over St. Claude bridge, down river club. “I’m nervous every time,” Kermit admits of each time he opens a new business.

The trumpeter and vocalist donned his first “bar owner hat,” way back around 1997 when he took over the Treme club on the corner of North Robertson and St. Philip streets. The popular spot in the then musically hot neighborhood had previously housed the second incarnation of the Caldonia, the original of which was torn down to make way for Armstrong Park. Immediately before Ruffins became the proprietor, it was called Trombone Shorty’s, named, of course, for the now famous Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews who was just a youngster at the time. Shorty’s family was already getting Troy’s moniker “in lights.”

Kermit’s next stop was Sidney’s Saloon on St. Bernard Avenue, a place where the clientele, which included neighborhood folks, music lovers, football fans and tourists, would experience both Barack Obama winning the presidency and the Saints winning the Super Bowl. Wow.

Ruffins leased the famous Mother-In-Law Lounge in 2011 but because of long delays in obtaining permits and licenses, he opened up Kermit’s Treme Speakeasy on Basin Street. It, by the way, was the only club that had a kitchen and operated as a restaurant though Ruffins was always renowned for his smokin’ barbecue and perfectly seasoned red beans that he generously shared with his patrons. He gained fame for his culinary expertise during his long residency at the Bywater’s Vaughan’s Lounge.

In 2014, the Kermit’s Treme Mother-In-Law Lounge opened on North Claiborne Avenue and soon he purchased the wonderful lot next door.

Ruffins adamantly states that by taking on the Kermit’s 9th Ward Juke Joint it doesn’t mean that he is giving up the Mother-In-Law or that he intends to make an empire out of the Kermit Ruffins signature bars.

“Oh, two is enough,” he declares. “Every time I wake up I say, ‘What the hell I got myself into?’ Once I’m wide awoke I think, ‘I’ll be okay, it’s going to be fun.’ One little drink and it’s like ‘Alright I got this.’”

“When I was a kid after my mother retired from radio and TV, she started working in all the bars,” Ruffins explains of his connection to the Lower 9th Ward. His mother actually helped run the same bar, where Fats Domino was a frequent patron and was then known as the Morris Lounge, that he has now.

“My cousins own almost that whole block. Dirty Rice (Ruffins right hand man) saw the club (at 5119 St. Claude Avenue) empty and he came and told me. I said, ‘That’s my cousin’s place let me call him up.’ We got a lease from him. It came full circle because I went to Emerson Elementary in the 9th Ward and I went Lawless and my mom worked at 5106 nightclub, the Morris nightclub, the Underground nightclub and I was in all of those clubs when I was 18 years old because I could drink then back in the day. So I would sit at the bars for hours with my mom.”

Ruffins, a hands-on bar owner who hires the musicians and barmaids and orders the liquor, favors the spot at the end of the bar at both establishments greeting folks, smiling for snapshots and taking care of business. On Wednesday nights he and his Barbecue Swingers play at the Juke Joint while on Mondays and Thursdays he blows at the Mother-In-Law.

“The goal is to hire a bunch of musicians and have live music as much as possible. It just brings a lot of love into neighborhoods that are almost dying from clubs that used to be like that. All I’m doing is what I used to see. I just want to make sure that I bring that spiritual feeling to these bars and the neighborhoods.”

This article originally published in the January 20, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.