Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

C OSIMO
M ATASSA
(1926-2014)
Recording mastermind Cosimo Matassa enabled the earliest and the best of the New Orleans
sound in R&B, rock, and soul. His engineering skills played an essential role in Fats Domino’s “The
Fat Man” on Imperial in 1950; in Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” and for the hits of Ray Charles, Lee
Dorsey, Dr. John, Smiley Lewis and others, especially the Allen Toussaint-Ernie K-Doe superhit
“Mother-In-Law.” In Matassa’s crowded Rampart Street studio, Dave Bartholomew produced “The
Fat Man” and played an important role in Rhythm and Blues thereafter. Later Allen Toussaint (q.v.)
became one of Matassa’ s regular producers and composers.
In the world of 1950s music, producing a hit recording called both for product and for distribution.
Successful record labels, notably “Imperial” and “Specialty” from the West coast, along with
“Ace,” “Minit,” and “Instant” labels had a comfortable step on New Orleans. While Matassa dominated
the local scene, his Chicago and Memphis competitors were well along in the business. Benefitting
from Matassa’s leadership, the New Orleans sound competed with solid drumming, heavy guitar and
bass, heavy piano, light horns and a strong vocal lead. And local genius did not hurt.
Matassa’s earliest and most famous studio, J&M Recording, was located on Rampart Street and is
now one of eleven historic rock and roll landmarks nationwide. In 1956, he moved to Governor
Nichols Street with the Cosimo Recording Studio. One of the first successes recorded there was Shirley
and Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll” (Aladdin).
The lure of distribution eventually led Matassa into that speculative field through his Dover
Records, which distributed Art Neville’s “Tell It Like It is” and Robert Parker’s “Barefootin”. The business
collapsed in 1968, leading to the closing of Cosimo Recording Studio. Although he kept working
for twenty years, Matassa never regained his dominant position in the business. In his last decade he
received recognition for his lifetime of work including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement in Music
Business Award in 2007, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Born into an Italian French Quarter family who operated a grocery, Matassa at eighteen years
gave up thoughts of either college or the food business. Instead, he opened his first recording studio
behind his parent’s Rampart Street business. As all things go around, after retiring from music
in his eighties he briefly took over the Matassa grocery before his death in 2014.
Cosimo Matassa.
SYNDEY BYRD, COSIMO MATASSA, PHOTOGRAPH 8" X 10"
1967. COURTESY OF THE LOUISIANA STATE USEUM.
For further reading: see John Broven who authored the first book on New Orleans R&B, Walking to New Orleans, in
1974. The book is still in print in the United States as Rhythm & Blues in New Orleans (Pelican Publishing).
E RNEST
N. MORIAL
(1929-1989)
Ernest Nathan Morial’s career was filled with “firsts,” during a period of New Orleans history
that some call its “Second Reconstruction.” He was elected in 1967, the first black member of the
Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction. Subsequently, he became the first black
Juvenile Court Judge and the first black Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge. In 1977, with near
universal black support and the support of a fifth of the city’s white population, he was elected the
first black mayor of New Orleans. As the city’s fifty-seventh mayor, Morial presided over a period
of rapid growth for the city prior to the “Oil Bust” of 1986. He was an effective administrator who
had no qualms about upbraiding the legislative branch and possessed a decisive, confident personality
that critics described as arrogant and pugnacious.
Born in New Orleans on October 9, 1929, to Walter Etienne Morial and Leonie Moore, Morial
belonged to the second generation born during the period of Jim Crow. Like his mentor,
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