Doreen Ketchins
speaker
125 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Doreen Ketchins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Oh, that Lawrence. We were in college and he knocked on my practice room one day. I went to this performing arts school called NOCA, you know, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. And I used to practice in this closet, the janitor's closet. And in the janitor's closet, you could hear the clarinet all through the school. But since it was a performing arts school, nobody complained, you know.
And one day, Ellis Marcellus knocked on my door. And he said, hey, you sound pretty good on that. You know, you ever thought about playing some jazz? And I'm like... No. And he said, well, why don't you listen to some jazz clarinetists and see what you think? You know, I'm like, okay. And Ellis Marcellus always did intimidate me, you know.
Yeah, so, you know, I was like, he said, why don't you take a listen and, you know, let me know what you think. And I'm like, okay. And see, I wasn't enthused because that's homework, you know. In addition to everything else I had to do, now I got to go to the library because, you know, you can't just take out your phone and go and look for, you know, I got to go to the library.
I got to check this out and all this other stuff. But I did because I knew he was coming back, you know, and I listened and I heard a lot of clarinetists, you know, George Lewis, you know, Pete Fountain and, you know, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw. And I respected what they did, but we were different.
You know, I was concentrating more on tone and technique and they were more concentrated on jamming, you know, bending the notes and not really concerned about tone and stuff like that, you know, so it wasn't my thing. And so, you know, a few days later, he knocked on the door again, and he said, well, what did you think? And I was like, you know, it's really not my thing.
I can appreciate what they're doing, but it's not my thing. And he said, well, you're entitled to your opinion. And as I tell you that, I can still see him saying that. before he closed the door, and I thought the world was going to end because I just made Mr. Marcellus angry. He wasn't angry. He was just chilling. And then I went to Loyola.
And just to cut the story short, I was practicing in the practice room, and there was a knock on the door. And I looked at the door. It was in a cubicle, so the doors were glass. This gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous dude was knocking on the door. And I'm like, may I help you? And he said, almost verbatim, I kid you not, he said, you know, you sound really good on that clarinet.
You know, you ought to try playing some jazz. And I was like, okay.
Well, how about just, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and I'll just give you an idea. ¦ Right? So, you know, straight tone, fill the horn up with air and stuff like that. And, you know, when you go high. So, but when I play jazz, you know, I still consider those qualities, you know, the quality of the tone and the quality of the technique and stuff like that. But, you know, guys would do it.
You know what I mean? Stuff like that, which was great in its own respect, you know, but just not, I mean, it's like taboo, you know, for somebody who, you know, played classical clarinet, you know. But, you know, by the grace of God, I figured out a way to combine the two because I wanted to hang with this tuba player, you know, this gorgeous tuba player. So I'd go something like...
I mean, we'd be in that same fifth grade class where we had the pop quiz, and a second line would pass by. Sometimes they'd let us take a break and watch them through the window, and other times we just had to keep going while a second line passed. And we had a funeral home.
you know in my neighborhood they had like four or five funeral homes so there was always a jazz funeral and I thought we were the only ones in the world that did that up until I became an adult and I started doing master classes and workshops you know around the world and started studying this stuff but you know it's an old African tradition and those Africans were enslaved and
They were spread all over the world. So you can find, you know, the celebration from this life to the other, you know, through some kind of music and song all over the world. You can find it in Japan, Germany, especially South America. You know, I think we do it the best. You know what I mean? We've grown up with being able to express ourselves through music.
Even if you didn't play an instrument, you could dance. You know, my dad never played an instrument as far as I know, but he was a member of a social aid and pleasure club. And those were the guys that dress up and dance, you know, in front of the band. So when Lawrence and I would come to the living room to learn new songs, my dad knew all the songs. He called the titles to all the songs.
So we grew up here. The music is in us, you know, and it's all around us. You can't avoid it. It's not like in the French Quarter where people with a whole lot of money can complain to the police about the music, you know, and the police could come down and actually...
ask you to stop in the hood you know somebody playing music or practicing their trumpet or something like that you can't call the police please police not gonna even listen to you you know but people don't anyway you know what i mean lawrence used his mom used to make him play outside you know go outside i don't hear all that you know right right so the neighborhood was used to hearing him play and he was used to playing you know whether you liked it or not you know what i mean so yeah
No, I haven't been out in the street yet. I mean, I played his memorial, but it's Mardi Gras, and we wouldn't be out there anyway this time of the year. They're too crazy around Mardi Gras time. And everybody's asking, hey, when are you coming out and all that stuff. And I say, oh, the weekend after Mardi Gras. And it'll probably be there. I'll probably do it. I have to. I mean, in the beginning...
When he first passed, I couldn't even listen to our music without breaking down. And I thought about it when I was planning his memorial service. I said, you know, you play all of these funerals and second lines and stuff for strangers and friends, and you're not going to play for your husband? It doesn't make any sense. So I worked at it, and it's a state of mind. I got to be. I got to cross.
You know, I got to step to the right or something like that. And then I'm like, okay. And I play. And I can play. And like, he's here. I mean, I still feel his presence. I really do. And I thank God for that because... I don't feel alone. And then our daughter's husband was deployed. So, you know, you could say she just happened to be home. But there's God because she's there and her son's there.
And it's just beautiful, you know. And if she hadn't been there that morning when I woke up and he was gone, I would have been alone. in that big old house, you know. I'd have still been all right. I'm still impressed with how I handled everything, but I wasn't alone. You know, they were there, and that's God.
Showing 101–120 of 125 · page 6 of 7
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