New Orleans music community mourns loss of two legends

Joseph Torregano
February 28, 1952 — October 6, 2015

Whether he was wearing a black and white brass band uniform or a blue uniform as a reserve member of the New Orleans Police Department, Joseph Torregano met everyone with the same mild manner. Clarinetist Joe Torregano, a dedicated musician and teacher, and altogether a nice guy, died on Tuesday, October 6, 2015. He was 63 years old.

Like fellow clarinetist Pete Fountain, who it is said was one of his idols, Torregano took up the clarinet at age 12 when a doctor recommended that he play a woodwind instrument to help with his asthma. His previous instrument was the piano that he began playing at the early age of five. A denizen of New Orleans’ 6th Ward, Torregano attended junior high school at Andrew J. Bell where he performed in both the marching and concert bands. In an interesting twist, Torregano, who also attended John McDonogh High School, later returned to Bell as an assistant band director after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from Southern University of New Orleans. Notably Torregano was a member of SUNO’s first graduating class that had the opportunity to major in music education. He used his degree well having taught in an amazing 23 different area schools in his almost 30 years as an educator. It’s cited that his students included such notables as saxophonist Victor Goines, trumpeter Christian Scott, tuba man Kirk Joseph and many more.

Torregano, who had been known to praise the importance of his marching band experience, began hitting the streets at age 18 as a member of trumpeter Ernest “Doc” Paulin’s Dixieland Jazz Band – an important start for many an up-and-coming, young musician. Next up was working with the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, founded by legendary musician Danny Barker to renew young people’s interest in the New Orleans brass band tradition. In 1972, Torregano, who played with a plethora of brass bands and traditional, sit-down ensembles in New Orleans, traveled to Europe for the first of many trips with saxophonist Harold “Duke” Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band.

“I was in the right place at the right time because there were no clarinetists (around) when I was playing in 1970,” said Torregano in a 2003 interview. He recalled that the clarinet was then considered the “forgotten instrument” and he appreciated the opportunity to listen to and sit in with an older generation of musicians and study with the great clarinetist Willie Humphrey.

Torregano, who also doubled on saxophone, recorded as a sideman with the likes of the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, trumpeter Leroy Jones’ Hurricane Brass Band, trumpeters Gregg Stafford and Wendell Brunious and more. One could say that he played and/or recorded with “everyone” on the New Orleans classic jazz and brass bands on the scene. A perpetual, though much appreciated sideman, Torregano didn’t release an album as a leader until 2003. Celebrating his half decade birthday, the album was appropriately titled Joseph Torregano… A Jazzman at 50! On a mix of standards, hymns, and traditional jazz, the clarinetist is joined by, among others, his brother, pianist Michael Torregano with special guest, trumpeter Dave Bartholomew stepping in for the upbeat chestnut, “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

Though Torregano retired from the teaching profession, his role as an educator continued as a volunteer at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. He reached the rank of lieutenant with the police force and, until his health issues caused him to miss some years, he was a regular at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where he performed in 2015, the French Quarter Festival and on stage at Preservation Hall.

Joseph Torregano was a friend to all – as a policeman on the corner as Mardi Gras parades rolled down St. Charles Avenue, as a teacher in front of young musicians with the potential to carry on this city’s musical traditions, and on bandstands around the word where his clarinet sang with his love of and dedication to the music.

Funeral service for Joseph Torregano will be held Tuesday, October 13, 2015, at Watson Memorial Ministries, 4400 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans. Viewing begins at 8 a.m. followed by the service at 10 a.m.

This article originally published in the October 12, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.