Doreen's Jazz New Orleans is a Dixieland and Traditional Jazz band run by one of the few female band leaders in New Orleans, clarinetist Doreen Ketchens. The group has toured the world, and performs in the Royal Street Performing Arts zone in the French Quarter of New Orleans, at jazz festivals, fairs, showcases, and concert halls. [1] Videos of the group by fans, news, and entertainment organizations have been seen by millions of people on the Internet and the group has recorded more than 20 CDs or DVDs of the group's work. [2] The group has been featured in numerous articles, including New Orleans' Jazz radio station's Busker Blog. [3]
Ketchens began playing in Jackson Square with her first band, the Jackson Square All-Stars. [4] Their band evolved into "Doreen's Jazz New Orleans," and, after much struggle with the chauvinism of traditional Jazz and club owners, they managed to find a winning formula playing and entertaining crowds via their street shows, Jazz festivals, and then, through direct sales of their music and videos on the Internet. [5]
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 15 Grammy Awards and been nominated 33 times.
Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers in the United Kingdom. Outside of New York, buskers is not a term generally used in American English.
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, that offers degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and Moshe Paranov, Hartt has been part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt College of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. The Hartt School offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in music, dance, and theatre, and associated disciplines. The Hartt Community Division offers a variety of opportunities in music and dance for students of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc., as it is officially named, was established in 1970 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (NPO). The Foundation is the original organizer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell Oil Company, a corporate financial sponsor. The Foundation was established primarily to redistribute the funds generated by Jazz Fest into the local community. As an NPO, their mission further states that the Foundation "promotes, preserves, perpetuates and encourages the music, culture and heritage of communities in Louisiana through festivals, programs and other cultural, educational, civic and economic activities". The founders of the organization included pianist and promoter George Wein, producer Quint Davis and the late Allison Miner.
The second line is a tradition in parades organized by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs (SAPCs) with brass band parades in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The "main line" or "first line" is the main section of the parade, or the members of the SAPC with the parading permit as well as the brass band. The second line consists of people who follow the band to enjoy the music, dance, and engage in community. The second line's style of traditional dance, in which participants dance and walk along with the SAPCs in a free-form style with parasols and handkerchiefs, is called "second-lining". It is one of the most foundationally Black American-retentive cultures in the United States. It has been called "the quintessential New Orleans art form – a jazz funeral without a body". Another significant difference from jazz funerals is that second line parades lack the slow hymns and dirges played at funerals.
Kermit Ruffins is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and actor from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often accompanies his songs with his own vocals. Most of his bands perform New Orleans jazz standards though he also composes many of his own pieces. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Ruffins is an unabashed entertainer who plays trumpet with a bright, silvery tone, sings with off-the-cuff charm and never gets too abstruse in his material."
Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and musical educator. Jazz critic Scott Yanow said in a review that White "displays the feel and spirit of the best New Orleans clarinetists".
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen revolutionized the New Orleans brass band style by incorporating funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans jazz style, and since has been a major influence on local music.
Daniel Moses Barker was an American jazz musician, vocalist, and author from New Orleans. He was a rhythm guitarist for Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter during the 1930s.
Congo Square is an open space, now within Louis Armstrong Park, which is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter. The square is famous for its influence on the history of African American music, especially jazz.
Louis Albert Cottrell Jr. was a Louisiana Creole jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He was the son of the influential drummer Louis Cottrell, Sr., and grandfather of New Orleans jazz drummer Louis Cottrell. As leader of the Heritage Hall Jazz Band, he performed at the famous Carnegie Hall in 1974.
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, fostered awareness of this new style of music.
Buskerfest is the name of a traveling festivals of buskers—street performers. Buskers in the festivals visit a series of host cities each summer. Host cities often shut down one of more blocks of a prominent downtown street for the festival.
Conrad Rodman "Connie" Jones III was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist from New Orleans.
David Paquette is an American jazz pianist. He has recorded more than 53 albums. Highlights of his career include touring the European jazz circuit, establishing and directing a seventeen-year running annual Jazz Festival on New Zealand’s Waiheke Island, and years as the Musical Director for Sydney Australia's Four Seasons Hotel.
The Liri Blues Festival, founded in 1988, is one of the main blues music festivals in Italy. It takes place every year in July near Rome in Isola del Liri, a small town twinned with the city of New Orleans since 1997.
Norbert Susemihl is a German trumpeter, drummer, singer, and bandleader. He is a promoter of New Orleans Jazz and New Orleans Music.
The Stooges Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana, brass band. The group was formed in 1996 after band leader Walter Ramsey saw a performance by the Rebirth Brass Band. The Stooges Brass Band is known for incorporating elements of hip hop, funk and R&B into a more traditional brass band framework. The band has played the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, and South by Southwest. In 2012, they were selected by the U.S. State Department to tour Pakistan, and became the first American band to play in Hyderabad.
Tuba Skinny is a traditional jazz street band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band's instrumentation includes cornet, clarinet, trombone, tuba, tenor banjo, guitar, frottoir, and vocals. The ensemble draws its inspiration from the early jazz, ragtime, and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s. The group began as an itinerant busking band and has performed around the world, including at music festivals in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Spain.
Doreen Ketchens is an American jazz clarinetist who performs Dixieland and Trad Jazz. She has performed at concert halls, music festivals, and U.S. embassies, as well as in decades of weekly performances in Dixieland's tradition in the Royal Street Performing Arts Zone in the French Quarter of New Orleans with her band, Doreen's Jazz New Orleans. Ketchens has performed for four U.S. presidents: Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, and was described by Nola.com in 2012 as one of the cultural ambassadors of New Orleans.