Beloved clarinetist, Ricky Paulin, dies

It was easy to tell that Ricky Paulin loved playing the clarinet, traditional jazz and entertaining an audience. The son of the late, highly regarded trumpeter and bandleader Ernest “Doc” Paulin, Ricky smiled through his horn. Ricky Paulin, a native of New Orleans, died on February 10, 2019 at the age of 59.

“Ricky was an open spirit – a people person,” says his brother, trombonist Dwayne adding that since childhood he possessed that same amiable personality.

As he did with all of his musical sons, Doc chose what instrument Ricky would play. After all, he wanted to keep the ranks of his group, the Doc Paulin Brass Band, which Ricky joined at about age 12, filled with family. It turned out to be a good match for Ricky who played some snare drum with his dad, bass clarinet in concert settings in junior high and then at Cohn and McDonogh high schools and even picked up the saxophone on occasion.

RICKY PAULIN

“He found his niche on the clarinet,” says Dwayne who blew next to his brother in Doc’s band and with the Paulin Brothers Brass Band. “He was the bomb on that clarinet.”

Saxophonist Kidd Jordan, who knew the Paulin family through Doc, admired Ricky as one who stuck with the clarinet and with traditional New Orleans jazz. “He loved the clarinet like (fellow clarinetist) Alvin Batiste. Alvin used to say, “If that boy Ricky really wanted to play modern music, he wouldn’t have any problem at all. He brought a lot of joy to his playing. He loved what he was doing.”

Ricky, who was self-employed doing cement work and building swimming pools, could often be found blowing his horn out at Jackson Square either with other musicians – if they were quality players – or often just by himself. An animated vocalist, he was a natural out there playing the classic jazz tunes that he grew up with for an audience appreciative of the old songs and style that they hoped and expected to hear in New Orleans.

“I like to be on the street,” Ricky once declared. “I do what I can, I make some money and I’m my own boss so that makes it even better. I’m gonna come like I want and not answer to anyone but God.”

“He was very independent like our dad,” says Dwayne of Ricky who was the seventh of Doc and Doreen Paulin’s 13 children.

When Ricky Paulin was playing music he was always wearing his “black and whites” – white shirt, black paints and tie – and usually his “Paulin” cap. That’s how his daddy taught him, that’s how he did. He also took to heart his father’s advice to first learn a tune’s melody and then embellish it to make it uniquely your won. Ricky got that right too. A fervent musician, as Dwayne describes him, sweat would often trickle down his smiling face as he constantly gave the music his all.

“He was a helluva musician,” Jordan declares.

Funeral arrangements for Ricky Paulin have yet to be announced.

This article originally published in the February 18, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.