Doreen Ketchens grew up in the Tremé, the oldest African American neighborhood in the country and the cradle of New Orleans jazz. Jazz funerals and second-line parades passed in front of her home several times each month; her school arranged regular visits to the New Orleans Philharmonic. The two streams — raw street jazz and classical orchestral music — would prove formative. She discovered the clarinet by accident, signing up for the school band in fifth grade at Joseph Craig Elementary mainly to escape a history pop quiz. She'd wanted to play flute, but most of the girls had already claimed it. The clarinet, she decided, would do.
In junior high, her band director Donald Richardson pushed her to practice seriously. Somewhere in there was also a boy she was trying to impress. When she finally committed, her talent surfaced fast. She played for John F. Kennedy High School and auditioned into NOCCA, Louisiana's Arts Conservatory, where she began studying with clarinetist Stanley Weinstein. She went on to Delgado Community College, Loyola University of New Orleans, and Southern University in New Orleans, and through scholarships — including one from the New York Philharmonic — attended the University of Hartford's Hartt School in Connecticut, studying under Henry Larsen and interning with the Hartford symphony. She worked her way through conservatories as a chef.
At Loyola she met Lawrence Ketchens, an arranger and sousaphonist who would become both her husband and her musical partner. She found her passion for jazz through Lawrence, and the two began performing on the streets of New Orleans together in 1987 — first in Jackson Square with a group called the Jackson Square All-Stars. Their first formal jazz gig was at the 1988 Republican National Convention. For a time, Doreen also ran a plate lunch eatery called "Doreen's Sweets." But the streets called louder. When they kept walking past musicians working the corners and she told Lawrence they could make money doing the same thing, the decision was made.
The Jackson Square band evolved into Doreen's Jazz New Orleans, which found its permanent home in the Royal Street Performing Arts Zone of the French Quarter. The path wasn't easy — traditional jazz was a chauvinistic world, and club owners were slow to take a female bandleader seriously. They found their winning formula through the street shows themselves: the combination of Doreen's extraordinary clarinet playing, her warmth with audiences, and a band with real showmanship. Fan videos of her performances began circulating online and have since been seen by millions worldwide.
The nickname "Lady Louis" arrived because of her ability to hit and hold the powerful high notes associated with Louis Armstrong's performance style and her deep affection for his music. Other names followed: "The Female Louis Armstrong," "Miss Satchmo," "Queen Clarinet," and eventually "Ms. New Orleans." On May 26, 2022, she was honored with a Doctorate in Music from Five Towns College in Long Island, New York — she is now Dr. Doreen J. Ketchens. Lawrence received a doctorate from the same institution, becoming Dr. Lawrence Ketchens. (Lawrence Ketchens, who also played tuba, valve trombone, drums, and piano with the band and was the first person to play sousaphone and drums simultaneously, passed away in 2025.)
Doreen has performed for four U.S. presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. At an earlier Jazz Fest performance of "Iko, Iko," she brought Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to their feet shouting "Hey Now." At the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a man rose from his wheelchair and led a second line around the Economy Hall Tent. She is a regular at Jazz Fest, French Quarter Festival, and Satchmo SummerFest, and has toured as far as Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, Russia, and Thailand. In 2006, she participated in a U.S. Department of State cultural exchange program with the Field Band Foundation, performing in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town with sponsorship from Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Her daughter, Dorian Ketchens-Dixon, premiered as a drummer at age four during the Sioux Falls, SD Jazz Festival and has been the band's regular drummer ever since — nicknamed "The Ghost Drummer" by fans in Martinique who couldn't see her tiny body behind the kit. Dorian has appeared on more than 17 of the band's recordings and can be spotted playing drums on "Don't Hurt Yourself" in Beyoncé's Lemonade video.
Doreen has appeared in HBO's Treme, Drunk History, Queer Eye on Netflix, Tyler Perry's Temptation, the films Out of Blue and Come On, Come On, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live and CBS Sunday Morning. She has performed alongside Ellis Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, Al Hirt, Jon Faddis, Dorothy Donegan, the Black Crowes, and Jennifer Warnes, and has opened for Macy Gray and Dr. John. She has won OffBeat Magazine's Best Clarinetist award in 2016 and 2023. Doreen and Lawrence also built a significant educational practice, performing in schools and universities across the U.S. and the world, teaching students about music, genre, and the culture of New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.
