I interviewed Cosimo Matassa a few years ago. Cosimo died yesterday; you might not recognize his name, but he brought you the music you listen to today. He opened the J&M Recording studio in 1945 in the back of his record and appliance store in New Orleans. Fats Domino and Jerry Lee recorded songs there, and of course Little Richard cut Tutti Frutti in Cosimo’s studio. I spoke to Cosimo on the phone in 2007. There’s no Cosimo in the New Orleans phone book, but there is a Matassa’s Market on Dauphine Street, so I dialed the number, and a friendly voice said, “Matassa’s!” I introduced myself and said I’m looking for Cosimo, and whoever was at the other end said, “Hold on, Cosimo’s right here!”. The more he talked, the more eerily familiar he sounded. Remembering the annoyed voice on Little Richard’s 1955 Specialty Sessions that starts and stops and restarts the “Kansas City” takes, I say, “Cosimo, is that your voice I hear on the Specialty Sessions?” “Aw, yeah!” he says. “I recawded him! I was the engineer!” He was 29 then and 82 when I spoke to him. He still sounded like a kid. This is the music the Beatles covered (they opened with “Long Tall Sally” in their first show at the Cavern Club), and everything since flows out of that. Thank you, Cosimo! RIP, brother. x
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:48:31 +0000
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