Kermit Ruffins: Shake and Bake
April 29, 2009
There’s only one thing that New Orleans jazz man Kermit Ruffins handles better than a trumpet - a barbecue. And if that barbecue happens to have a smoker with a handle shaped like a trumpet? Fuhgeddaboutit.
Ruffins’ barbecue, so big that it’s attached to a hitch hooked onto the back of his pickup truck, is often parked outside of the gigs he plays all over the Crescent City, and is a sight to behold. It is the latest in a string of Ruffin family barbecues, and a brand new replacement for the one set inside the back of his pickup truck. In fact, Ruffins’ cooking skills date back farther than his musical career, which began when he picked up a trumpet at the age of 14.
With New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in full swing, Ruffins is showcasing his culinary and musical skills all over this fine city. He’s played Jazz Fest for at least the past 25 years, and this year he’ll perform sets with both his own Barbecue Swingers band and as a guest with the Rebirth Brass Band, which he founded in 1982 with then high school classmate Philip Frazier. On Jazz Fest’s first weekend alone, Ruffins played his longstanding weekly Thursday night gig at Vaughan’s Lounge, and then a Friday night record release party for his latest album, Livin’ a Tremé Life (out April 28 on Basin Street Records), at the House of Blues. He played at halftime of the New Orleans Hornets’ NBA playoff game Saturday afternoon before darting to the fairgrounds to join Rebirth as special guest for their set. At any one of those shows, one of the aforementioned barbecues might be parked right outside, serving up sausages, turkey necks, nutria or whatever the flavor of the day might be.
29th Annual Alcorn Jazz Festival Features All-Star Jazz Line Up
April 16, 2009
The 29th Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival will take place on April 18 in the Vicksburg Convention Center. University, College & H.S. jazz ensembles from around the Southeast will perform in the morning and afternoon. There will be an educational workshop @ 4:00 pm and an evening concert by an extraordinary all-star lineup that includes internationally acclaimed vocal sensation Dee Dee Bridgewater, master jazz pianist Geri Allen, awesome drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, rising super-star bass player and singer Esperanza Spalding and the amazing emerging young talent of 16 year-old alto saxophonist Grace Kelly.
This incredible group of leading international jazz greats will be performing together for the first and likely only time anywhere in the world, right here in Mississippi! The evening concert with the MS Jazz Educators and this phenomenal All-Star Quintet will start at 7:00pm. For details call Dr. David Miller @ 601-877-6602 or Google “ASU jazz fest.” All of this sensational music is absolutely FREE and open to the public!
That’s the 29th Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 18 in the Vicksburg Convention Center! You don’t want to miss this once in a lifetime music history making event!
For nearly three decades the Department of Fine Arts at Alcorn State University, with funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts, has sponsored what has become Mississippi’s longest-running and most prestigious jazz festival. The day-long festival features performances by some of most outstanding professional jazz musicians and university, college and secondary school jazz ensembles from throughout the United States. Highlights of the festivals are the afternoon workshops and evening concerts by some of the world’s greatest jazz artists.
Now in its 29th year, the Annual Alcorn State University Jazz Festival is a masterpiece rich in tradition and talent. Jazz masters like Clark Terry, Max Roach, Slide Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, Louie Bellson, Donald Byrd, Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Turrentine and Roy Hargrove have graced the stage of this free event throughout its history, establishing the ASU Jazz Festival as a true gem and premier jazz event in the region.
For more information, contact: Dr. David Miller, Festival Director at davemilleralcorn@yahoo.com or call (601) 877-6602.
http://www.alcorn.edu/academic/ACADEM/fineart/jazz.htm
St. Augustine Spring Concert
April 15, 2009
On May 3, 2009 the St. Augustine Symphonic and Jazz band will be having our annual spring concert. Our special guests are Mr. Victor L. Goines, Germaine Bazzile, and Herlin Riley.
Return of the Tarpon Band
April 13, 2009
Alcee Fortier Online Band Registration
The Alcee Fortier Community Music Program will provide a hands-on music curriculum, with music history, theory, instrumental instruction, and ensemble performances. The Alcee Fortier Community Music Program will be free for teens ages 14 to 18. If you are in this age group and live in the New Orleans area and you want to be apart of Tarpon Band, visit our website and register today!
Drummers urged to keep beat alive
April 9, 2009
Dirty Dozen member wants to give back
By Amy Hubbell / Nola.com
Dirty Dozen Brass Band drummer Terence Higgins, an Algiers native, had a plan in 2005 to start a drumline camp for young people. Then Katrina hit.
“I wanted to give something back to the drummers in New Orleans,” Higgins said. “Raymond Ellison, a parent, actually approached me about putting this together. He said, ‘I want you to teach my son, and I wish there was something you could do to get kids the right information.’ ”
After Katrina, Higgins moved to Atlanta, but he has returned to New Orleans, and the camp is back on track.
The Louisiana Drumline Camp will present an all-day mini-camp for young drummers on April 18 at Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School. Higgins said the “principle objective is to educate students and rebuild a long-standing drumming tradition in New Orleans.”
Read more
