Dorris Matte- "Mardi Gras Twist"

 

                                        

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

Shorty (Vorris) Leblanc- Boss Cajun

Vorris "Shorty" Leblanc was born in Jefferson Davis Parish on Christmas Eve of 1923. At a early age he took notice of Cajun music being played around him. He soon became accomplished on numerous instruments and taught himself music without reading or writing the music. His nickname came about from the fact that his brothers were over 6 feet tall and he was under that height.

He bought his first accordion, a Sterling, while stationed in Europe during WWII and brought it home with him. During the late 1940's he played with Iry Lejeune and others throughout the area and in 1951, when the Laccassine Playboys split; Shorty replaced Iry on accordion. In 1955 they disbanded and Shorty played with other musicians in the area including Alfred Cormier, Jay Stutes and Charlie Babineaux.

In the late 1950's, he joined Cleveland Crochet's Hillbilly Ramblers, playing a brand of Cajun music blended with some country and pop tunes. In 1960 the group recorded "Sugar Bee" which broke into Billboard's top 100. Following the hit, the group was renamed the Sugar Bees and began to play many bookings in the area. The group was so popular that a West German film company came to Lake Charles in 1963 and made a 30 minute film featuring the band. As a follow up to the hit, the group recorded many sides on the Goldband label in the next couple of years. Included in these recordings was "Boss Cajun".



"Boss Cajun" was recorded in 1961 at Goldband Studios. The band was essentially the Sugar Bees on the recording. Shorty played accordion with Cleveland on fiddle, Jay Stutes on steel guitar, Charlie Babineaux on guitar, Bradley Stutes on bass and Clifton Newman on drums. It features Shorty's great accordion work and rocking guitar work from Charlie Babineaux. The song is similar to Nathan Abshire's "Lake Charles Two Step" recorded in 1950. Shorty's "Boss Cajun" is still played by many groups today.

By 1963, Shorty left the Sugar Bees and formed his own group. They later became the Acadian Aces with Cliff Newman on drums, Benny Martin on guitar, and Jay Stutes on fiddle.  Shorty also recorded with Jimmy C. Newman on his album, Folksongs of the Bayou. 

Resources
Ron Yule- Cajun Dancehall Heyday
with thanks to Winnona Landry for information about her father.
Johnnie Allan- Memories Volume One
Micheal Dupuy

Cleveland Crochet and His Hillbilly Ramblers- Sugar Bee

When Cleveland Crochet was 12 years old he built his first fiddle out of a cigar box, beginning his journey that would lead to a hit record and years as a regular on the Cajun dance circuit. 

He had recorded for Folk Star and Khoury's in the mid 50's. He originally named his group The Hillbilly Ramblers. But he and his band had been working on a new sound. Eddie Shuler of Goldband Records was always looking for new sounds to record. He found it with Cleveland and his group's new take on Cajun Rock and Roll.
Eddie Shuler recalls:

"One day in 1960, they walked into my office. They had something they wanted me to hear. I knew at last I had found the sound I was looking for. We set a date and the result was 'Sugar Bee'."

It featured Cleveland on fiddle, "Shorty" LeBlanc on accordion, Jay Stutes on steel guitar and vocals, Charlie Babineaux on guitar, Bradley Stutes on bass and Cliff Newman on drums. Although the group had been together for 6 years with only moderate success; they now had a hit on their hand.

The song featured Jay's shouting vocals, roaring accordion from LeBlanc and a short solo from Crochet. "Sugar Bee" stood out because it was sung in English and the accordion was made to sound like a blues harmonica.

Shuler took the record to Beaumont's KJET in hopes of getting airplay. The DJ there was Eddie's old friend Clarence Garlow, and he assured him it was a hit. After getting airplay on KJET, the record took off and had the station's switchboard lit up for weeks.

Goldband had national distrubution by Bill Lowery's NRC organization out of Atlanta. When NRC filed for bankruptcy afterwards, the sales were hurt. Goldband escaped the episode and regrouped. The record continued in the same fashion where Shuler assumed the writing credits for most of the records he released. Sadly not giving credit to the real songwriters.

Cleveland and his group tried to follow up the success of "Sugar Bee" with other songs in the Cajun rock and roll format to no avail. As so happens after the arrival of success, the group went their separate ways. The sounds they created could never be duplicated. Jay Stutes took over as leader from Cleveland when the band was renamed the Sugar Bees. 
They resorted to a more traditional style of Cajun music, playing clubs around the Golden triange. They split up in 1965 when Shorty LeBlanc passed away. Jay joined Blackie Foriester's group and even showed up on Jo El Sonnier's album in 1980.

                                                       
 Cleveland Crochet -Sugar Bee
 Goldband 1106
Recorded at Goldband Studios, Lake Charles, La
1960                                                         

 Resources
 John Broven- South To Louisiana