Nicky Doublet
Nicky Doublet (9 October 1968 - 5 January 2002) was a Maltese jazz percussionist, well known for his performances at Voices concerts.
He was born in [[tal-Pietà]; Theresa nee' Aquilina and Carmel Doublet's youngest offspring. His brothers are Rupert and Kevin.
Nicky attended elementary school in San Ġwann and later the Junior Lyceum at Tal-Ħandaq. He was first employed as a postman, but later joined the Department of Social Services.
His musical talent was evident from an early age. In his teens he bought his first drum kit: a second-hand Premier set. He also played the xylophone. In those days, he used to prefer hard rock, with Deep Purple as his favourite band. Later he started training at the Johann Strauss School of Music and was introduced to jazz by his tutor, Charles "City' Gatt.
Nicky furthered his studies in jazz at Umbria during a two-month course in 1985. He was also honoured in The Hague with a North Sea Jazz Festival Award and soon enrolled for a diploma in music at the University of Malta, writing an honours thesis on North African and Turkish percussion.
Many people remember him fondly after seeing him play either at his studio in il-Marsa or at various parties and events around Malta. He played percussion for Claudette Pace on various occasions, and was also a member of the Voices band.
His preferred line-up was a simple trio with his friends keyboardist Joe Debono and guitarist Sandro Zerafa. In 1997, he furthered his trio by forming the Zugrumbun Combo with 12 other jazz musicians. These included bassist Bernard Scerri, Jason "Chubby" Fabri (who later dedicated a track on his own 2002 CD to Nicky), Angela Sultana and Pascal Leroy.
The following year he appeared with some of these musicians as Nox and the King. Nicky was also the founder of Miles Co-op specializing in music and entertainment. He was the resident percussionist on popular TV programme Xarabank. In fact, Nicky appeared in public for the last time during one of these programmes.
On the 30 August 2001, just 17 weeks before his demise, Nicky married Joanne Scolaro, who lovingly cared for him during his last months of suffering at their home in l-Isla.