CLEARWATER For two New Orleans jazz masters, emotions will lie close to the surface when they perform at this weekend's MarineMax Clearwater Jazz Holiday.
On the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina devastated his hometown, jazz vocalist and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins packed a bag, boarded up his house and bar-hopped through all his favorite Crescent City haunts.
At 5 a.m. the next day, he and his family were off to Baton Rouge.
When he returned home, he found his home in “pretty good" condition but full of mildew. His parents' house, his childhood home, didn't fare as well.
“It was totaled," Ruffins, 40, said. “I never, ever could imagine seeing anything like that in my entire life."
Before Katrina, Ruffins considered his life “real normal, real stable." He played music every night.
Now he finds himself rebuilding his family's life in Houston, where his father and mother also have resettled. Recently, he said, he¡¦s started to relax in Houston, and once again he's performing almost every night.
“But," he said, “I can't wait to get back to New Orleans. We will swing again and I can't wait."
Continue...
On the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina devastated his hometown, jazz vocalist and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins packed a bag, boarded up his house and bar-hopped through all his favorite Crescent City haunts.
At 5 a.m. the next day, he and his family were off to Baton Rouge.
When he returned home, he found his home in “pretty good" condition but full of mildew. His parents' house, his childhood home, didn't fare as well.
“It was totaled," Ruffins, 40, said. “I never, ever could imagine seeing anything like that in my entire life."
Before Katrina, Ruffins considered his life “real normal, real stable." He played music every night.
Now he finds himself rebuilding his family's life in Houston, where his father and mother also have resettled. Recently, he said, he¡¦s started to relax in Houston, and once again he's performing almost every night.
“But," he said, “I can't wait to get back to New Orleans. We will swing again and I can't wait."
Continue...
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