Cosimo Matassa

When the phrase “Legend Of Rock And Roll” is used, one rarely hears the name Cosimo Matassa attached to it. However, if one were to mention Fats Domino, Little Richard, Smiley Lewis, Lee Dorsey, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Brown, chances are there would be more people nodding their heads in agreement than you’d find at a bobble head doll convention.

All those people and dozens more are intrinsically linked together for two main reasons. They are all trail blazing giants of the Rock and Roll/ R&B genre and they were all recorded at one time or another (in most cases extensively) by Cosimo Matassa, owner and engineer of J&M Studio, 840 North Rampart Street, New Orleans, LA, USA.

The path was an unlikely one. Around the time of World War 2, Matassa was a reluctant chemistry major at Tulane University. After dropping out, some minor health issues allowed him to avoid the draft. A short time later, his father demanded that he either go back to school or find some work.

Employment was readily available through the family business, an appliance store that also sold and serviced coin operated jukeboxes. This line of business would ultimately yield an inventory of used jukebox records that were then sold at the store. Demand grew and customers started asking about the availability of new records.

As the records began to outsell the appliances, Matassa came up with the idea of adding a recording booth in the back of the store, where people could come in for a fee and cut a record of their voice or anything else they wanted to. Word got around, and local bands came in to record their music. As this became more commonplace, copies of these local records would make their way to the storefront, resulting in even more business.

The Matassa family were reaping reasonable profits, and Cosimo was enjoying the added benefit of recording and selling the local music that he loved. However, the game would change dramatically on Saturday, December 10th, 1949. Imperial Records owner Lew Chudd was in town with one of his employees, Louisiana native Dave Bartholomew. Arguably the most accomplished and technically proficient musician to be based out of that area, Bartholomew worked for Imperial records as an arranger, songwriter, and talent scout.

Chudd had asked Bartholomew to take him around town to see some of the best local talent New Orleans had to offer. It wasn’t long before they found themselves at a local dive in the 9th ward checking out a set by Fats Domino. It became clear that this was the act to record, so a session was arranged for that aforementioned Saturday at J&M, the only studio in town.

One of the songs recorded on that day was called “The Fat Man”, and while there can never be a definitive first ever Rock and Roll record that everybody agrees on, it can be said without a doubt that “The Fat Man” is one of the earliest records ever made that helped shape the genre. At first, it was only a local hit during that Christmas. However, after selling a reported 10,000 copies in New Orleans in a mere 10 days, the record broke nationally in January of 1950.

The success of “The Fat Man” created a gradual groundswell of sorts, building up to the point where independent record companies like Specialty, Aladdin and Chess entered the scene. These companies, who were already enjoying considerable success recording R&B artists from other areas of the country came sniffing around New Orleans saying to Cosimo, “This area has got some good records coming out , and we want to record some”. He would then take them to all the places and let them hear whoever in his opinion was worth hearing. As a self described “general direction pusher”, Matassa took great pride in calling attention to the artists that he loved. Even though he was essentially doing the work of an Executive Producer and/or A&R man, he would be the first to admit that he was not market conscious enough to understand that he could’ve in fact charged considerable fees for these services.

As a result, New Orleans was to early Rock ‘n Roll what California was to the Gold Rush. The independent record companies came in and strip mined the area, paying Matassa nominal fees for studio time (15 dollars an hour plus the cost of materials) along with musicians receiving bare minimum royalties or sometimes nothing at all, a result of what Matassa describes as “questionable accounting”.

As the Fifties progressed, Cosimo became busier and busier, as more record labels from across the country migrated down in search of his expertise. “ I practically lived in that place…(The studio)…We’d start at nine o’ clock in the morning, and sometimes wouldn’t get out until midnight. We never charged for overtime, and that would go on for seven days a week”.

So what was the secret? What made these records sound so good? Part of the answer lies in the talent. Matassa was fortunate that people like Dave Bartholomew , Earl Palmer, and other great musicians were around and available. He is in fact , the first to defer all of the credit to them, rather than himself. There were other fortuitous random instances as well, such as the time when a Jewish Synagogue allowed him to purchase a Telefunken Neumann 47 state of the art microphone for a fraction of what it cost. The congregation did not want the microphone because it was German!

At first, probably up until 1954 or so, all performances were cut direct to disc, obviously with no tape editing. Matassa comments on those days by saying, “Those were the good performances, probably some of the best. Because they really WERE performances as opposed to the synthesized record you make today, when you lay down the rhythm and start putting things on top of it, three months and 12 sessions later nobody remembers what the original thing was really going to be like”.

Matassa also had the technical expertise from both being “naturally technically oriented” and by being a member of AES (Audio Engineering Society). “that helped me immediately. I got back issues of the journals and stuff like that. I got myself oriented really
easily. Going to conventions and talking to and meeting with people who were doing anything I was starting to do was a big help too”
More important than all those things though, was his uncanny instincts combined with his emotional connection towards what was being recorded. “I would always pride myself in being able to walk into a studio, stick the right microphone in the right place, set up a group and record them. Just like a guy who lays a lot of bricks, he knows how to grab a brick and a trowel”

“If you transmit an emotion to the listener, it’s a good record…it’s gonna be a successful record. Now, having said that, how you measure it, I don’t know how you predict it. I have not a clue. Because it just happens, and then everybody’s aware of it, you know.. it’s fundamental. And yet totally evasive”.

Although far from a household name, Cosimo Matassa is chiefly responsible for what is now known as the New Orleans Sound. His approach featured strong bass, heavy drums, and a strong vocal lead combined with light piano and horn. Legend has it that the knobs in his control room never moved from where they were permanently set. Virtually every R&B record made in New Orleans between the late 1940’s and the early 1970’s was engineered by Matassa and recorded in one of his four studios. A partial listing below reads like a who’s who of popular music during that time frame.

Goin Home-Fats Domino- (#1 Hit)
Good Rockin’ Tonight-Roy Brown-
Long About Midnight-Roy Brown-(#1 hit)
Lawdy Miss Clawdy-Lloyd Price -(#1 hit)
My Ding-a-ling-Dave Bartholomew- not a hit but Chuck Berry’s version did also hit #1
Honey Hush-Joe Turner(#1-widely considered as the forerunner to “Shake, Rattle and Roll”)
The Things I used To Do-Guitar Slim- (#1 hit)
Jock-A –Mo-Sugar Boy Crawford--later recorded as “Iko Iko”
Blue Monday-Smiley Lewis-
I hear you Knockin’ Smiley Lewis-
Poor Me-Fats Domino-(#1 hit)
Tutti Frutti”-little Richard
See You Later, Alligator-Bobby Charles
Long Tall Sally-Little Richard-(#1 hit)
Rip It Up-Little Richard –(#1 hit)
Ready teddy-Little Richard
Lucille-Little Richard
The Girl Can’t Help It-Little Richard
Jenny, Jenny-Little Richard
Good Golly Miss Molly-Little Richard
Let The Good Times Roll-Shirley And Lee-
I’m Walkin’ Fats Domino-(#1 hit)
Sea Cruise-Frankie Ford
First ever recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Rivers, and Allen Toussaint
Walkin to New Orleans-Fats Domino
I Want To Walk You Home-Fats Domino (#1hit)

Mother in Law-Ernie K Doe(#1 hit)
Ya Ya- Lee Dorsey

When asked about his legendary sound and his immense contribution to popular music, Matassa exclaimed humbly, “I don’t know if you can call the Cosimo Sound that distinctive. I tend to feel less about that than other people seem to. I’m not impressed with myself”. When asked about his status as a pioneer in the field of Rock ‘n Roll recordings he quipped.. “Pioneer…that’s the guy with an ass full of arrows”.