Kermit Ruffins has performed on some of the world's biggest stages. Trumpet in hand, the 59-year-old has been taking jazz to the next note since his childhood.
“My uncle Percy Williams, he's a trumpet player, and I remember when I was 8, 9, 10 years old, and he'd come home almost every weekend and he'd put the trumpet in my hand and look at that thing. , man, when he opened that case, that shine, that smell of that brass, it was so exciting.”
In high school, Ruffins and some classmates started the Rebirth Brass Band, which to their surprise became a world-renowned group. Ruffins, a native of New Orleans, is considered the king of music.
After more than a decade of touring the world, Ruffins' roots called him home in the early 1990s. That's when he formed his next group, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers.
“It's dance music,” he said of the band's sound. “And we're doing it in a birthplace of jazz where jazz was invented, just a stone's throw from where we're sitting.”
But his musical success could not protect his family from gun violence.
Two years ago, Ruffins' pregnant girlfriend, Harmonese Pleasant, was shot by a stray bullet outside her home. She went into emergency labor and left her daughter, Blossom, with a spinal cord injury. Doctors are not sure if he will ever be able to walk.
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“It's unbelievable, you know. It's like, it's not really happening. Because now my baby probably won't walk,” Ruffins said. “And then Harmonese has this big scar, the most beautiful girl in the world. So it's a lot when I look at Blossom and I know what's going to happen in terms of going to school and everything.”
Louisiana ranked second in gun-related deaths in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the national level, homicide and violent crime rates declined overall in 2023, according to data released by the FBI.
But last weekend, one person was killed and 11 were injured in New Orleans after a shooting outside a nightclub after a festival, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In the meantime, Ruffins and Pleasant hope their story will bring more awareness to gun violence.
“Because it's a … it's a real thing. It's a big thing,” Pleasant said. “And it affects people in a very important way.”
“I could have been doing two funerals,” Ruffins added.
David Begnaud recently reported CBS Mornings on Tulane University students who are building wheelchairs specially designed for children with disabilities. The students handed one to Ruffins' daughter to help her get around more comfortably.
With a new perspective on life, Ruffins' music now has a different tune, a little more focused on hope and peace in the community.
For Ruffins, there is no role he loves more than being a parent. Through everything his family has been through, he is grateful for the outpouring of love and support they have received.
“They love me to death and everybody loves Blossom,” Ruffins said. “She's joy as hell, and I look in her eyes, she's excited about life.”
