![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/New-Orleans-Jazz-History-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The
\nweight of history is piling into the present, spilling onto painted murals on
\nthe exterior walls and framed photographs of jazz legends within the crowded Mother-in-Law
\nLounge. Here at the famously vibrant New Orleans bar, which doubles as a live
\nmusic venue and a shrine to local R&B singer Ernie K-Doe, another local
\nhero Kermit Ruffins is preparing to open his weekly set. <\/p>\n
The jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer<\/a> performs regularly around his hometown and hosts Monday gigs at Mother-in-Law Lounge<\/a>, which he took over operating in 2011. At Ruffins\u2019 lounge in the historic Treme neighborhood<\/a>, the murals of K-Doe \u2014 whose chart-topping hit \u201cMother-in-Law<\/a>\u201d gave the bar its name \u2014 are only the most obvious way that history is coloring the present.<\/p>\n The Treme neighborhood is the birthplace of jazz music<\/a>, with many historians pointing to New Orleans\u2019 cornetist Buddy Bolden<\/a> as being the first champion of the genre in the late 1800s and early 1900s with his swinging and improvisational music. After the Jazz Age of the \u201920s and \u201930s, with bandleaders like Louis Armstrong moving jazz dominance up to Chicago, jazz continued to thrive and develop in New Orleans. The band that Ruffins started in his 20s, the Rebirth Brass Band<\/a>, embodies this continued development. When it debuted more than 30 years ago, Rebirth fueled a brass band revolution. With the group, Ruffins toured the world, returning home to embark on a solo career, headlining a jazz quintet known as the Barbeque Swingers. <\/p>\n Nowadays, Ruffins, who played himself on the HBO series \u201cTreme<\/a>,\u201d is a staple of the neighborhood. He often can be found barbequing outside or performing at his bar, where the welcoming space flows with a cadre of Ruffins\u2019 musical friends who frequently join him in impromptu sets. <\/p>\n Inside the Mother-in-Law Lounge, Ruffins pays homage to one of his idols, Armstrong, with a large photograph. The lives of Armstrong and Ruffins intersect in more than one place: jazz, New Orleans, brass bands and outspoken advocacy for what Ruffins prefers to call \u201cthe reefer,\u201d but what Armstrong called \u201cthe gage<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n In New Orleans, as with all romantic American cities, the past dances with the present and sometimes, as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. When Armstrong was arrested for cannabis possession in the 1930s, he became one of its earliest advocates. Today, in a state where cannabis remains inaccessible even to medical patients, Ruffins continues to advocate for a plant with a deep historical connection to the traditional music he brings to life. <\/p>\n After One of your idols I\u2019m quite sure that back in the days when jazz was invented in New Orleans, marijuana was a big relief. You know what I mean? So far as the daily events of racism, I\u2019m quite sure it was very<\/em> important to have that joint at the end of the day \u2014 just going to the neighborhood and rolling a joint, sitting down and smoking and preparing for the next day to make money for your family or make music or what have you.<\/p>\n How I might have started [smoking] at right about 15 years old. I\u2019m 54 now and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve missed a day of it since then. I\u2019m positive that it had a strong influence when I started the Rebirth Brass Band in \u201982. As far as writing tunes, it\u2019s just been a big influence on the creativity of the music and the culture and just the change of the music \u2014 where it changed from the old brass band style to the style that The Rebirth came out with, which was just a little bit more peppy, more than anything, but the same music.<\/p>\n What Yeah, right, about 15 years old.<\/p>\n What If Many legendary jazz artists have songs about cannabis and you also have a song called \u201cHide the Reefer<\/a>.\u201d Was it important to you to write a song about cannabis and, if so, why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, the main thing was my manager back in the day with The Rebirth, her name was Allison Miner. She started the Jazz and Heritage Festival<\/a> along with Quint Davis and when she started managing me, the first thing she did was gave me a CD called \u201cReefer Songs.\u201d That CD was the highlight of my life because we traveled the road so much in Europe, every summer for like 15 summers in a row, and we were always in vans, in trains, in vans and trains and vans and trains, you know? So, that was the soundtrack of my European tours when I first started traveling with The Rebirth Brass Band, my original brass band. Those tunes just gave me a drive, so when I finally broke away from The Rebirth and decided to go on my own, every CD I recorded I decided to do one of those reefer songs. Eventually, I wrote one of my own.<\/p>\n \u201cHide Aw, What Reefer What are your thoughts on medical marijuana in Louisiana<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n We I The What\u2019s We\u2019re TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0did you know the history of marijuana was Originally published in Issue 37 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Reefer Songs With Kermit Ruffins<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The weight of history is piling into the present, spilling onto painted murals on the exterior walls and framed photographs of jazz legends within the crowded Mother-in-Law Lounge. Here at the famously vibrant New Orleans bar, which doubles as a live music venue and a shrine to local R&B singerContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":36963,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,99,484,85,10190,11602,11603,3267,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36964,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962\/revisions\/36964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/New-Orleans-Jazz-History.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\nseeing Ruffins perform at the Mother-in-Law Lounge, I caught up with him over
\nthe phone the next day. The trumpeter was calling from Houston, where he also
\nhas a home, along with another bar, Axelrad, where he tells me there is a craft
\nbeer that \u201csmells just like marijuana.\u201d We spoke about the consequences of
\nLouisiana\u2019s anti-cannabis laws on black families, the first time he smoked \u00a0marijuana, and just how much inspiration he\u2019s
\npulled from an old CD of \u201creefer songs.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nLouis Armstrong was arrested for cannabis possession and wrote the song
\n\u201cMuggles\u201d about the gage. What are your thoughts on marijuana\u2019s contributions
\nto the history of jazz music?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ndoes cannabis influence your art?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwas your first experience with cannabis? You said you were 15?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ndid you do, smoke with your friends or\u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nI remember clearly, I think a guy was growing it in the backyard next to my
\nhouse in the Lower Ninth Ward and I think me and a couple of friends jumped the
\nfence and snatched the plant. We didn\u2019t realize what we were doing, it wasn\u2019t
\neven ready yet and we just chopped it up and smoked it. So I\u2019m not sure that\u2026
\numm.. [laughs<\/em>] we got the effect that
\nwe thought we were going to get. But as far as we were concerned, we were high
\n[laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kermit-Ruffins-Live-Jazz.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\nthe Reefer\u201d is a great one, too. It\u2019s a classic.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nthank you. There was a guy named Creeper who was a neighborhood guy. I think he
\nserved in the military for a long time. The Treme neighborhood had so many
\ncharacters [back in the day]. I mean, just hundreds of characters walkin\u2019 down
\nthe avenue on any given Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday right about noon. The
\nwhole neighborhood would help Creeper out with anything he needed. You know,
\ngive him money for food, give him a little reefer, a beer \u2014 whatever he needed
\n\u2014 and he would sometimes have a real sloppy kind of mouth so nobody wanted to
\npass him the reefer. So, when he came up the street, we\u2019d be like, \u201cHide the
\nreefer, here come Creeper.\u201d That\u2019s the way that song evolved.<\/p>\n
\nis your favorite slang term for marijuana?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u2014 I think because of the reefer song CD. I called it weed before that. My
\nfavorite joke is to say my wife left me for the reefer man\u2026 I sure miss him.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Cannabis-Jazz-Reefer.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\nbetter hurry up and legalize it. The state can use all that money and we can
\nstop incarcerating people and losing lots of money and breaking up families. One
\narrest can lead a family into a bunch of money situations to the point where
\nyou can\u2019t afford rent and you have to move in with your mom and that causes
\nchaos, so it breaks up families. Within two or three months, it can totally
\ndestroy a family. What has been going on in America is poor black citizens, often
\nbecause of marijuana charges, really can\u2019t afford that. No family can afford
\nthat \u2014 to pay an attorney, to pay your bills, and get on probation for six
\nmonths and then pay the city or the state $50 every week to get drug tested. <\/p>\n
\nmean, I went through that, to the point that I got busted for a little reefer
\nand I had to go through it for six months and had to pay so much money for drug
\ntesting, so much money to the lawyer, so much money to the courts. I was lucky
\nthat I had a profession where I could afford to still take care of my family
\nand not get tossed on the street, but it ruined so many lives back in the day. <\/p>\n
\nstate really needs to release anybody that\u2019s still in Angola [the notorious
\nLouisiana State Penitentiary] on marijuana charges, you know? It has to be
\nreversed right away. Other than that, there\u2019s going to be no justice. It\u2019s so
\nsad they\u2019ve got elderly old men back there for a bag of marijuana that are
\nstill in jail. It just doesn\u2019t make sense at all. I guess back then, nobody
\nreally gave a sh*t, but thank god that it\u2019s changing.<\/p>\n
\nnext for you? What have you got going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nhoping to put out a bunch of CDs and basically take care of family, friends and
\nmy neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\nclosely connected with the history of jazz?<\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Reefer Songs With Kermit Ruffins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"