Ernest ‘Doc’ Paulin (June 22, 1907 – November 20, 2007) was born in Wallace, Louisiana, in St. John the Baptist Parish, to a Creole French-speaking family. He organized his own band, the Doc Paulin Dixieland Jazz Band, in the early 1920s and performed traditional New Orleans jazz for seven decades — marching in long parades into the 1990s, featured in the documentary Always for Pleasure, and recording for Icon and Folkways (including the Smithsonian Folkways LP Doc Paulin’s Marching Band). His non-union band gave many young musicians their start, including Big Al Carson and Anthony ‘Tuba Fats’ Lacen.
Doc and his wife had thirteen children, six of whom played music professionally — starting in their father’s band. The sons’ Paulin Brothers Brass Band took his lessons to heart: Doc inspected every gig from head to toe — black shoes with a high shine, clean pressed pants and white shirt, solid black tie, clean band cap — and insisted that being a musician meant representing the music itself, ‘whether playing in the heart of the ghetto or playing for the President of the United States.’
Today the Paulin Brothers play second lines, street parades, clubs, and festivals around New Orleans and the world, in the vibrant, old-school style their father championed. Their 1996 CD The Tradition Continues — on which Doc himself performs — says it all: this is a family keeping a promise.
