Morris Ardoin and Dennis
Stroughmatt are shown
performing at the Liberty Theater in Eunice,
November 27, 2004. In the photos below, Blake
Castille is at far left and Dexter Ardoin, Morris
Ardoin's son, is at far right.
Click here
to go to LSUE's page on Morris
and Dexter Ardoin. |
Click here for information on ordering this CD and
for booking information on the Morris Ardoin Trio.
Dennis Stroughmatt has produced a
wonderful CD containing gems of Creole music played
by a member of the truly legendary Creole family
headed by Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin.
Stroughmatt is from Illinois, but he has been
immersed in Louisiana French culture for many
years (and, before that, in the Creole French
culture of Old Mines, Missouri).
Go to
his Creole Stomp web site to check
out his biography that describes a remarkable
odyssey
In recent years, Morris Ardoin,
Bois Sec Ardoin's oldest son, has usually played the
fiddle with his son Dexter on accordion.
Occasionally, he would sit in on accordion for his
father if Bois Sec got tired, and
another LSUE page shows
him on accordion at a jam session held at the 190
Muffler Shop in Basile (with Dennis Stroughmatt also
taking part). The CD Le Tracas de Morris,
released in November 2004, now gives everyone a
chance to hear his mastery of the Creole accordion
and also listen to him sing some great old songs
that have been part of Creole culture for many decades.
The CD includes "Eunice
Two-Step," "Highpoint Two-Step," "Jolie Bassette,"
"Kaplan Waltz," "Jongle à Moi," "Jolie Catin," "Lake
Charles Two-Step," "Midland Two-Step," "Quoi Faire,"
and "Bars of the Prison," plus an opening blues and
the title cut, "Le Tracas de Morris," in which
Mr. Morris
bemoans mistreatment by a woman who has left him and
protests that what has happened is not his fault.
Stroughmatt, who counts Canray
Fontenot as among the master fiddlers he knew while
interning at Vermilionville in Lafayette, is
completely at home in the way he makes his
instrument pour out a joyful blues and in the Creole vocals
that he performs on about half the cuts.
We are fortunate that, after having been on tours
across American and in Europe for several years, Stroughmatt and Mr. Morris finally decided to record
their music. The result confirms Stroughmatt's
description of Morris Ardoin as "a national
treasure."
The CD may be ordered from Dennis Stroughmatt's
Creole Stomp web site. It will also be available
in 2005 on
Flat Town Music's Maison de Soul label.
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