New OrleansRug Cutters

The New Orleans Rug Cutters are a jazz band based in New Orleans, Louisiana, whose style runs from traditional jazz to blues and swing, with a repertoire reaching from the early 1900s through the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. In 2018 the band started busking in the streets of New Orleans, and in the years since they have become fixtures of the city’s swing-dance scene, performing regularly in music clubs, swing dance events, and private and corporate events around town.

The six-piece lineup is built for the dance floor: Gabriel Cavallini on guitar and banjo, Ravee Treesaseksakoon on trumpet, Connor Lee Bidgelow on sax, clarinet, and vocals, Ellis Seiberling on trombone and vocals, Hannah Davis on drums and vocals, and Stoo Odom on upright bass. Their sound is steeped in the earliest jazz — the band cites Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven, Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Duke Ellington as guiding lights.

On February 26, 2025, the band released its self-titled debut album, The New Orleans Rug Cutters, a ten-track set of period standards including “Cornet Chop Suey,” “Clarinet Marmalade,” “Sugar Blues,” “Savoy Blues,” and “Climax Rag.” The record is available through Louisiana Music Factory and the band’s own Bandcamp page.

Their calendar reads like a love letter to New Orleans nightlife: swing dance nights (they’ve played Allways Swing Night at the Allways Lounge and Swing Night at Maison Dupuy), plus weddings, receptions, birthdays, house parties, corporate gigs, and second lines — offering everything from a full brass-band second line and a six-piece traditional jazz band down to duos, trios, and quartets. They can even add professional swing dancers to an event, for a performance or for dancing with the guests. If you want a band that understands the assignment when the assignment is joy, start here.