Leaving A Legacy

A 15 YEAR OLD SULPHUR JOURNALIST FINDS OUT WHAT MAKES NEW ORLEANS JAZZ ICON DOREEN KETCHENS TICK

BY SARAH MEDICK

I’m a 15-year-old student of Jazz In The Arts and I play clarinet. I was excited when I was assigned to interview Doreen Ketchens in anticipation of Jazz In The Arts’ Nov. 6 concert at the Governor’s Mansion in Lake Charles. I was a bit nervous. Well, that is a bit short of telling the truth. I was very nervous.

I’ve heard Ketchens play clarinet before. I’ve even had the privilege of having a short lesson with her. As a young musician, I think she is incredible, and I was really wanting to find out more about her.

I wasn’t sure how to begin or where to go, so I decided to do this oral history of her. I researched and learned all I could from the internet and prepared my questions.

I started with 40 questions, which I then cut down to as few as I could use to have an effective interview. I was ready to call Ketchens to set up an interview.

On the day of the interview, we left super early from Sulphur and arrived to a beautiful day in New Orleans. Local radio station WWOZ was kind enough to allow me to use their recording studio for my interview.

When Ketchens arrived, I thought, “Oh, she’s here,” and started shaking with nerves. “Doreen Ketchens is really here and I am about to interview her,” I thought. “Pull it together Sarah, pull it together!”

Ketchens’ presence is kind, humble and generous. The other thing about Ketchens is her incredible smile; all I could think was, “I want to be just like her.”

So here we go and the tape is rolling … “Hi, Ms. Ketchens. How are you?”

Now everything I wanted to know about Ketchens is about to roll forward.

Medwick: “You’re called the ‘Clarinet Queen.’ What makes your music so distinct?”

Ketchens: “I was a classical player who fell in love with a tuba player who played jazz. He asked me to join his band. I started playing jazz; I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t like clarinet players I had heard. Their tones were bad and their technique wasn’t that great.

“I started listening to Louis Armstrong. I started copying him. I could relate to him really well. It was motivation.

“Then I started listening to the clarinet players who were playing with Louis. Some of them were really great. I thought, ‘I can really find a place here.’

“I had already started learning from Louis, and the trumpet player concept is what makes me different. My thoughts were of leading the band as opposed to playing behind the band. So when I play melodies, I play them like a trumpet player. The melodies aren’t out of my range; they’re what I feel. That is what makes me different.

“Sometimes I hold my horn up in the air … When we’re at a studio session or on stage and the mic isn’t way up there and it’s out in front of me, that changes things. But normally, my horn is up in the air when there’s not a mic in play. And that’s basically because when we first started playing music and playing big band for the brass players, you couldn’t get over the brass players with the horn down. So it just happened — up went the horn.

“It is all God, it is not me, it is all God. God helped me figure out what I had to do.”

Ketchens then picked up her clarinet and played a little of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” What an incredible musician!

Medwick: “How did you get started in the music industry?”

Doreen Ketchens

Ketchens: “Dumb luck!” [She laughed.] “We were in Connecticut attending the University of Hartford. We practiced at school, and it sounded really good. It was New Orleans music in Connecticut. People would say, ‘Oh my goodness gracious, can we hire you?’ And that is basically how we started. Just doing parties.

“Then this entertainment agency picked us up and had us doing a few gigs in different places. We hired some musicians up in Connecticut, taught them how to do a few New Orleans songs, then it started and snowballed from there.”

Medwick: “What impact do you think you are having in the jazz world?  Are you leaving a legacy?

Ketchens: [She laughs again and smiles.] “Yes. I am a humble soul.”

When she was young and back in school, she says, “There were plenty of female clarinet players; as a matter of fact, there were more girls than there were boys. But as I went through college and into performing, there were hardly any. I asked myself, ‘When is the last time I heard a female clarinetist playing jazz?’ and my answer was, ‘I haven’t.’ Then she corrects herself, and says, “Annette Cole; at the moment, that is all I can think of.

“So I figure, if more little girls decide to continue with clarinet and play jazz and whatever else, that’s wonderful, because this is a man’s world.” [She nods, then agrees with her owns words.] “Yes, it is a man’s world.” She gives me a smile and a nod and says, “But I am going to change that.”

Medwick: “You have 22 albums and three DVDs. Do you have plans to do any more?”

Ketchens: “We are overdue to go into the studio. I want this next CD to be special, so it’s taking a little longer to put it together.”

Medwick: “You’ve taught other people how to play New Orleans songs.  What is your favorite song?”

Ketchens: “It changes. I have favorite songs for sure. ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’ A lot of people from New Orleans will say they are so tired of that song. I have made more money on that song than any other song, ever. It’s a really good song for me. It’s both jazz and gospel. A lot of people know how to play it, so yes, it’s one of my favorites, for sure.

“‘This Train’ — a wonderful song that I just started playing a few months ago. I just love it and it’s a gospel song. ‘La Vie En Rose’ — I love this song because when we start playing it, people stop and turn around. It’s one of those songs.

“There are so many … ‘House of the Rising Sun’ — that’s another one. People are not even paying attention to you; [you] start playing ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and they are like, ‘What?’

“There are a bunch of [songs], but on a short list, those are the ones at this time.”

Medwick: “Who is your role model?

Ketchens: “Louis Armstrong! You know, there was this program when I was coming up — I was about your age — called ‘Name That Tune,’ and they would play a tune or they would just have a few notes played, and the person who won could name that tune in the fewest number of notes. When Louis comes on, with one note, I know it is Louis Armstrong. For me, it’s the essence of the music and the passion that he puts into the music.”

Medwick: “You had to make your way in the music industry and go through college and have other experiences. What advice would you give to young, aspiring musicians?”

Ketchens: “I would say, ‘Don’t give up.’ Don’t go into it thinking that everyone is going to welcome you with open arms, because it’s not going to be that way.

“Some will say, ‘Oh, she’s so cute,’ and expect you not to be able to hold your own when you can hold your own. Some people are all right with you not holding your own, and they will have you make them sound good. But then if you can hold your own, a lot of people don’t want you around them.

“I lost a lot of jobs just from auditioning. [It] just wasn’t going to happen because I am a modest person. I kid you not; it’s just the truth. I’d go and they’d say, ‘Come on, come on stage with us.’ I’d get on stage and I’d play a song and they’d do a solo and the people would applaud. And when I played my solo, people would really applaud and say, “Oh, my goodness.” And you know, cats don’t like that. Cats don’t like for you to show them up on their own bandstand. They don’t like it.

“So, I would suggest you go in strong and don’t let anyone deter you. Have faith in yourself and practice really hard. You’re going to have to be three or four times better than the next guy just to get noticed. And that’s the honest truth.”

Medwick: “How did Hurricane Katrina affect you?”

Ketchens: “Well, with Katrina, we had two houses at that time. One of them just sustained roof damage. My husband is a contractor, so he was able to fix that, and we were able to come into our home very soon after Katrina. But the other home, which is in the city, got 4 1/2 feet of water, and it wasn’t workable for us for a long time.

“We had family that was affected also. Lawrence’s mother’s home sustained 22 feet of water. So in addition to trying deal with what was going on and what had happened and what was lost, we lost some friends too — in attics and stuff like that.

“You still have to rebuild, and in the meantime, you’re not playing because there’s nothing here. I mean, you figure, ‘Well y’all are street musicians. Y’all can go out on the streets.’ [She takes a heavy breath.] There was nobody.

“I remember riding on the interstate one day and we were the only ones there. There were no cars in front of us, no cars behind us, no cars on the other side of the interstate; just us. It was just spooky-crazy.

“The place stank for a long time. It was just a stench that was awful. So we’re working between the two houses, losing our lip; fans are calling us and writing us, saying, ‘Oh, can we send you money? What can we do?’

“I said to the guy who’s managing us now, who at the time was a professor in Iowa at Des Moines in physiology, when he called to ask what he can do, ‘We need to get us some jobs because we need to work. Musicians need to work. Sending us money, that is cool. But we need to work.’ So he said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

“And then there was this other guy, a principal at a school, on the other side of Iowa — he asked the same thing. I said, ‘We need work. And before long, actually the first place we played, was Sioux City, Iowa. It was about three weeks after Katrina. We were riding in downtown Sioux City and it was like this shock because I had been in New Orleans where there was nothing going on — just devastation everywhere. And to go to this beautiful city where the people are playing in the park, and walking around and stuff — I started to cry. Oh my, I am so sensitive.

“We are still rebuilding from Katrina. We didn’t get any money from Road Home or anything like that. So everything has been blood, sweat and tears. But the impact was great. It was definitely a point in our lives where everything stopped, and we had to grind it to make it start again.”

Medwick: “Who is Doreen Ketchens? Describe yourself.”

Ketchens’ whole demeanor changes. She becomes quiet — still with her bright smile — and quietly says, “I’m a clarinet player. I’m a mother; a wife; and I try to be as great at all of those as I can.

“I am very nice unless you make me mad, and then I am not very nice at all. I am lazy, even as I was coming up.

“God gave me a gift, so a lot of things came naturally. Actually, if I worked as hard as I should or could have, I’d be floating off the ground about that high.” [She motions with her hand.]

“I am compassionate; I like helping people. I have gotten in trouble with the police for giving the bums money; giving them food and stuff like that. Doreen Ketchens is a very nice person.”

Medwick: “Earlier we mentioned that you have 22 CDs and three DVDs.   Is your website the only place people can find your music?”

Ketchens: “Well, no. But it is pretty limited outside the website. We do have some local music stores here in New Orleans, such as the Louisiana Music Factory, Forever New Orleans Gift Shop — really awesome stuff inside of there, and we actually play in front of there. But yes, mostly on the website (www.doreensjazz.com/).”

Medwick: “Is there anything you’d like to add?”

Ketchens: “What, you haven’t heard me talk enough yet? I’m always talking. No, but really, I’d like to say thank you for this interview. Thank you for finding us and bringing us to Lake Charles. Thanks to the fans of old and the new fans that we will get. And the show is going to be a really great show. We are going to talk a little bit and play a lot and hopefully get some audience participation, because it’s all a part of it to us — not to just play at you and play what we want to play, but to entertain you and have you do a little feedback so we can all can leave with a little bit of each other.”