Not Just Another Thursday Night: Kermit Ruffins and Vaughan’s Lounge

Featured in the HBO series Treme, Mick Jagger, Wynton Marsalis, Elvis Costello and Peter Jennings are just a handful of luminaries making appearances in this rollicking chronicle of trumpeter/vocalist and indisputable New Orleans icon, Kermit Ruffins, and the downhome Bywater bar he made famous. Teeming with a colorful cast of unforgettable characters, "Not Just Another Thursday Night: Kermit Ruffins and Vaughan's Lounge," celebrates community and tradition while capturing the sense of timelessness that defines New Orleans. Mazza's account overflows with hilarious tales of musicians and bar flies, voodoo ceremonies and epic jams, placing the reader deep in the gritty Ninth Ward neighborhood, and right on top of the bandstand. In 1993, in a ramshackle bar deep in the working class Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans, a trumpeter building a small following after his departure from a celebrated brass band began a weekly gig. It lasted nearly twenty years. The bar and the musician became icons together. Thursday nights at Vaughan's became legendary. Author Jay Mazza attended over 350 of those performances. Using notes, recollections, archival news reports and extensive interviews with many of the musicians, he has crafted a detailed history of a special time and a unique venue, which holds an exalted place in the memories of those who were there. The book features photographs by Herman Leonard, David Rae Morris, Cheryl Gerber and others. From the foreword by Delfeayo Marsalis: "Throughout the 1990s, Vaughan's grew into an important musical institution here in the Crescent City. Kermit Ruffins was the perfect musician to anchor the Thursday night shows because of both the infectious joy inherent in his musical personality and his loveable, disarming personality. Musicians who stopped in to play with the band ranged from beginners to students to professionals and ranged more specifically from the traditional to the beboppers to the modernists and funk aficionados. All were welcomed with open arms and all were able to play inside of a comfort zone that is extraordinary in any musical environment. On a given night the repertoire would range from the traditional jazz repertoire to standards, bebop tunes and of course, something funky."