New Orleans trumpeter and vocalist Kermit Ruffins put it succinctly during a 2011 interview with cannabis magazine High Times: “I need two things to have a perfect show: reefer and people.”
Ruffins’ affection for reefer — his preferred term for cannabis — is well known among locals who might catch sight of a stray pipe or bong hanging around the Mother-in-Law Lounge. Reefer and jazz have long gone hand-in-hand, as Ruffins puts it, and his sets often include a couple of “reefer songs,” like “If You’re a Viper,” first recorded in 1936, and his own “Hide the Reefer,” written about a neighborhood wanderer who often got too enthusiastic with Ruffins’ joints.
Ruffins grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and attended Joseph S. Clark Sr. High School in Treme, where he co-founded the Rebirth Brass Band in the early-’80s. During Ruffins’ years with Rebirth, promoter and Jazz Fest co-founder Allison Miner, who managed the band, gave the trumpeter a copy of “Reefer Songs,” a compilation of music from the ’20s to the ’40s mostly focused on cannabis — among other illicit substances. With songs like “If You’re a Viper,” “All the Jive is Gone” and “Reefer Man,” the album left a lasting impact on his music, Ruffins says…