Dorris Matte was born to April 20, 1937 in the Pointe Noir area. Growing up he was inspired by Lawrence Walker and after seeing the legend play; he knew he wanted to play the accordion. A year or two later his father said he could afford a small accordion from the Sears Catalog.
During the late 40's and early 50's, Dorris listened to Saturday afternoon radio shows of Cajun music. There he heard Cleveland Mire, Lawrence Walker and Aldus Roger.
In the late 50's he bought his first “little black” accordion from the local accordion maker, the late Mr. Sidney Brown, which encouraged him to learn more songs and fulfill his desire of playing and entertaining people.
He graduated high school in 1955 and married that same year. He moved to Lake Charles and started working for the Greater Lake Charles Water Company. There he started his band, The Lake Charles Rambling Aces. He began playing the dancehalls in 1958 making 10 to 15 dollars a night.
They recorded one session in 1962 for Swallow Records, but the following year they recorded "Mardi Gras Twist" at Floyd Soileau's studio. Joining Dorris on the recordings was Jay Stutes on steel guitar and Robert Thibodeaux on drums.
Floyd Soileau had leased some rooms in the Platte Theater. He went to a egg plant near Leesville and and bought some of the material to put on the wall in this space for a studio to help with the sound. In this studio Floyd only used 3 microphones. Floyd recalls:
"I could sell anywhere from 600 to 1500 copies just to my jukebox companies. So, when I was cutting a record in my studio I would tell the guys, 'Jukeboxes don't like anything that's longer than two-and-a-half minutes, let's cut it down a bit. Let's cut the playing time down so more records could be spun.' I was also telling them, 'You only got about fifteen seconds to sell your sound to a jukebox operator buyer. So, let's not waste it with a long instrumental. Let's get to the meat-and-potatoes right away in your song.' And so I was punching that along to produce something the operator loves and that was good for him, good for the artist, it was good for us, and it worked. We got all of our stuff on jukeboxes."
The group would continue recording for Floyd's Swallow Records. They would record another session in 1963 and one more in 1966. They would record such songs as "No Good Woman" and "Passe par-tout".
During these years, he was invited by KPLC TV to play on a live show every Saturday afternoon, “Saturday Night Down South”. He also played live shows on Channel 3 in Lafayette, Louisiana and taped programs for the “Passe Par tout” program. He also played some teen dances at the old skating rink on Hodges Street. By the late 1970's Doris retired from playing.
Session info:
V/acdn, Jay Stutes (st-g), Robert Thibodeaux (d), remainder unknown
Swallow Studio, Ville Platte LA: 1963
S-6377 Mardi gras twist Swallow 10140
Resources
William Thibodeaux- Buggy Tracks
Wade Falcon
Ron Yule- Cajun Dance Hall Heyday
Interview with Floyd Soileau
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