Known as "Lady Louie," Doreen Ketchens has been a fixture of the French Quarter for nearly four decades. We talk about her classical training and her career as a street performer, and she'll play some music.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Doreen Ketchins and what is her significance in New Orleans?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. And if you're ever in the French Quarter in New Orleans, chances are you've spotted my guest today, clarinetist and vocalist Doreen Ketchins. For over 30 years, she's performed on the corner of Royal and St. Peter Street, four days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day, with her band, Doreen's Jazz New Orleans.
Doreen Ketchins has many nicknames, Lady Louie, Queen Clarinet, and Miss Satchmo, nods to her passionate performances of Dixieland and traditional jazz, and for her ability to hit and hold high notes for long periods of time, like the great trumpeteer Louis Armstrong. Ketchins has performed for four U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter.
And initially, she played classical clarinet before her late husband, Lawrence Ketchins, introduced her to jazz while the two were students at Loyola University. Lawrence was an accomplished musician in his own right, too. As part of Doreen's band, he played the tuba, valve trombone, drums, and piano, becoming a major attraction for his ability to play the sousaphone and drums at the same time.
A few years ago, Ketchins fulfilled her dream of performing at the Kennedy Center. She's also played with orchestras around the world. Doreen Ketchins, welcome to Fresh Air. Thanks for having me. I want to offer my sincerest condolences on the loss of your husband, Lawrence, who just died this past January. And I had the pleasure of going down the rabbit hole of watching your performances.
And aside from being utterly captivated, I was also just taken by what felt like magic watching the two of you performing together. Are you still performing? Yeah.
Yep. I mean, I don't want to get haunted for the rest of my life, you know. That's what he'd do. He used to always tell me, you know, you got to play no matter what. So that's what I'm doing. And it's working. It's working. I get strength from just thinking about the times he's been in the audience, you know. And giving me a nod, you know, one way or the other.
It seemed like there was such a great love between the two of you, and your love language was the music. You all performed together for many decades, and I think maybe a beautiful way to start our conversation is to actually hear a little bit of the two of you. I watched this video of you two performing for the New Orleans Jazz Station, WWOZ, and
And there you are, playing the clarinet and singing, and Lawrence was playing sousaphone and the drums at the same time. I don't actually think I've ever seen that in my life. I was thinking, how? Can I play a little bit of that performance? Yes, please. The song is House of the Rising Sun.
They call the rising sun It's been the run of many a line And now I know who I want
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Chapter 2: How did Doreen Ketchins transition from classical to jazz music?
And there's a king and there's a queen in their court. And I just thought it was the coolest little thing. I went there two years in a row. But so it came time to raise the money. And what you do is you do things. So my mom, she decided to sell candy from the front room. So she'd go and buy some wholesale candy. And we were right down the street from the school.
So naturally, kids would come and get on the doorstep and buy candy. You had to be pretty popular. Yeah, yeah, learn how to fight, too. But so, you know, she was pretty good, you know, sell candy and cookies and stuff like that and raised some pretty good money and turned it in. But when we turned it in, I wasn't queen. I didn't have enough money to be queen. I was...
And it was cool, you know, I got to wear this big, beautiful yellow dress, but I wasn't queen. When the queen walked up, you know, the aisle, I was like, man, look at her, man, I could be queen. So we started early that next year, you know. Of course, they never stopped coming to the door anyway.
And by the time it was time to turn in the money, we had a whole lot more money than we had the year before. But it was my last year there. I had basically aged out. So my mom, she explained that to me. I was four. And she said, now, I know you want to be queen, but we could do one of two things. We could take all of this money and turn it in and you can be queen.
You walk down that aisle as queen. I'm like, yeah. She said, or we could take half the money and you probably won't be queen, but you could still walk down the aisle and you'll have some money saved. You know, you start saving money and, you know, you grew up, you have more. I was four. So what I wanted to do was take all the money and even add some more and be queen. I mean, I just did, you know.
But I looked at my mom and I know what I was supposed to say. Even though I was four, I knew what I was supposed to say. So I said, okay, we'll do that. And that's what we did. And I still wound up being first maid. But I was okay with it because when the queen walked down the aisle this time, I'm like, yeah, I gave you that.
But the kids kept coming to the door, you know, and there was a barbershop next door run by two twins. And they closed up. And, you know, my dad got the bright idea of, hey, people come to the door anyway, come to the shop, you know. So he inquired about, you know, renting a shop and got it. And we lived next door and we had a sweet shop. Right there. And my mom started.
And that's why they named it Doreen's Sweet Shop, because it all was brought upon by me wanting to be a queen.
I mean, what kinds of stuff did you all sell? You sold all the kinds of sweets that were a part of that contest. But what did the kids come there for?
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Chapter 3: What was Doreen's experience performing with her late husband Lawrence?
It varies. You know, there's a buggy driver who says she can hold her breath for two minutes. I don't know about all that. But when I was a kid and I was in junior high school, I used to hold my breath for nickels, you know, and getting, you know, and I made a lot of money, you know, doing it. So I have, you know, it was no problem putting it in the clarinet.
Matter of fact, but it has to be a high note because they don't take that much wind. You know, it couldn't be a low note. I couldn't possibly do that on a low note because, you know, it takes too much wind. But with those high notes, sometimes, you know, instead of taking a breath at the end of it, then, you know, I have to release.
Doreen, this has been such a pleasure to talk with you, and I really appreciate you taking the time in the midst of your grief to share your beautiful love story and the beautiful music that the two of you all made together. And I want to end maybe by asking you about this song that is on your latest CD that was Lawrence's. Can you tell us about it?
Yeah, it's called West Africa, and it's absolutely wonderful. It was a joint collaboration, but I just came up with the melody and the words, which came really easily because of what Lawrence established in the piece already. And my daughter and I, we have it on loop. You know, we just play it all day, every day. And it's just absolutely wonderful, you know.
And even listening to it, you know, I tear up because so much of him went into it and you can hear it. I mean, I can see him in the studio, you know, because he was supposed to be doing harmonies. And he said, you're going to think I'm crazy, but this is what I'm feeling. And it just went on and it's just beautiful, just beautiful. Doreen Ketchins, thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you.
That's Doreen Ketchins with her band, Doreen's Jazz New Orleans, from their album, Walking Through the Streets. Tomorrow on Fresh Air, two experts join us to explore the rapid dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion, commonly known as DEI. across public and private sectors.
Once hailed as markers of social progress, conservative critics now portray DEI as emblematic of excessive woke culture. Join us. To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at nprfreshair. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Brigger.
Today's senior producer is Teresa Madden. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Anna Bauman, and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. Susan Nakundi directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.
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