By Dan EmersonAt the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, clarinetist and bandleader Doreen Ketchens finished her set in the Economy Hall tent and announced her next gig: “We’ll be back on the street tomorrow,” she told the audience. On the street in the French Quarter is where Ketchens has become a fixture and crowd favorite since she began performing there in 1987 with her late husband, sousaphonist Lawrence Ketchens. It was the home of co-founder and saxophonist Roger Lewis, who made a prescient prediction about Ketchens’ music career. Doreen worked her way through conservatories and college as a chef, and met arranger and sousaphonist Lawrence Ketchens at Loyola. Ketchens’ current, favorite French Quarter venue is the 700 block of Royal Street, near Rouse’s Quarter grocery store.