Swing this? Well, bam!, like that celebrity chef from the Crescent City likes to say, let’s kick it up a notch, which is exactly what Kermit Ruffins has done here.

The affable trumpeter, vocalist, and bandleader continues to be an endearing figure on the New Orleans scene, enhancing his reputation for smoking jam sessions through the acquisition of a fervent college-crowd following. Unfortunately, the buoyant energy Ruffins invariably brings to the stage doesn’t always translate to aluminum.

Case in point: his previous Basin St. release, recorded live at uptown Tipitina’s, which wound up containing more sizzle than steak. The problem: Ruffins’ love of the New Orleans tradition, to translate completely, needs both a full-bodied looseness and the ability to bring specific elements into sharp focus. The solution: producer Tracey Freeman, long-time cohort of Harry Connick, Jr., and sideman Rod Paulin, who brings both his saxophone artistry and a knack for arrangements to Ruffins established quintet, in the process filling out the three-horn front line to traditionally prescribed proportions.

Not only is Swing This! the best Kermit since his initial Justice release, World On a String – which featured a New Orleans fantasy backing band of Ellis Marsalis, Danny Barker, Doreen Ketchens, Lucien Barbarin, Walter Payton, Tuba Fats, Shannon Powell, and even James Andrews on backing vocals – but Ruffins, five recordings later, sounds that much more relaxed and sure of his strengths.