J&M Recording Studio named
Rock and Roll Landmark
It was here, in a small backroom at 840 N. Rampart St., that Cosimo Matassa engineered and produced some of rock ’n’ roll’s earliest hits. While the building houses a laundromat today, more than 60 years ago, it was an appliance store with a recording studio in the back. It was also the place where, in 1949, Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew recorded the song “The Fat Man," which many say gave birth to the rock and roll era.
A few other J&M recordings, including Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin Tonight” and Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” have sometimes been called the first rock’n’roll record.
More than one musician has made sly references to the corner. In Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” recorded in 1949 at J&M, Rampart and Dumaine is the place he’s going to stand “until he sees the Zulu Queen.”
Matassa, now 84, opened the Rampart Street studio in 1945 after he dropped out of the chemistry program at Tulane University. Inside the legendary studio — which measured 15 feet by 16 feet with a control room that he said was “as big as my four fingers” — Matassa recorded a storied list of acts. They included Domino and his longtime collaborator, trumpeter and producer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonist and producer Harold Battiste, Ray Charles, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Roy Brown, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Professor Longhair, Earl Palmer, Dr. John, James Booker, Guitar Slim, Smiley Lewis, Little Richard ,Lloyd Price and many others.
During those years, his focus was on the music and recording, never on the business side. Like many of the musicians he recorded, he ended up with meager financial reward.
Cosimo retired from the music business in the 1980s to manage the family's renowned food store Matassa's Market in the French Quarter.
http://offbeat.com/2008/05/01/jm-studio-house-of-rock/
Danny Gatton was born in Washington, D.C. on September 4, 1945. He began his career playing in bands while still a teenager. He made his name as a performer in the Washington, DC, area during the late 1970s and 1980s, both as a solo performer and with his Redneck Jazz Explosion, in which he would trade licks with virtuoso pedal steel player Buddy Emmons. Gatton's playing combined musical styles such as jazz, blues and rockabilly in an innovative fashion, and he was known by some as "the Telemaster"
Dammy usually played a 1953 Fender Telecaster and Fender now manufactures a replica of his heavily customized instrument. His picking technique was a hybrid combination of pick and finger rolls based on Scruggs style banjo picking., He possessed a classical guitar left hand technique, thumb behind the neck, fretting with arched fingers.
His skills were most appreciated by his peers including his childhood idol Les Paul. However, he never achieved the commercial success that his talent deserved. His album 88 Elmira Street was up for a 1990 Grammy Award for the song "Elmira Street Boogie" in the category Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
On October 4, 1994, Gatton locked himself in his garage in Newburg, Maryland and shot himself. He left behind no explanation. In retrospect of his suicide, people around Danny have suggested that he may have gone in and out of depression for many years.
J&M Recording Studio named
Rock and Roll Landmark
It was here, in a small backroom at 840 N. Rampart St., that Cosimo Matassa engineered and produced some of rock ’n’ roll’s earliest hits. While the building houses a laundromat today, more than 60 years ago, it was an appliance store with a recording studio in the back. It was also the place where, in 1949, Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew recorded the song “The Fat Man," which many say gave birth to the rock and roll era.
A few other J&M recordings, including Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin Tonight” and Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” have sometimes been called the first rock’n’roll record.
More than one musician has made sly references to the corner. In Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” recorded in 1949 at J&M, Rampart and Dumaine is the place he’s going to stand “until he sees the Zulu Queen.”
Matassa, now 84, opened the Rampart Street studio in 1945 after he dropped out of the chemistry program at Tulane University. Inside the legendary studio — which measured 15 feet by 16 feet with a control room that he said was “as big as my four fingers” — Matassa recorded a storied list of acts. They included Domino and his longtime collaborator, trumpeter and producer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonist and producer Harold Battiste, Ray Charles, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Roy Brown, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Professor Longhair, Earl Palmer, Dr. John, James Booker, Guitar Slim, Smiley Lewis, Little Richard ,Lloyd Price and many others.
During those years, his focus was on the music and recording, never on the business side. Like many of the musicians he recorded, he ended up with meager financial reward.
Cosimo retired from the music business in the 1980s to manage the family's renowned food store Matassa's Market in the French Quarter.
http://offbeat.com/2008/05/01/jm-studio-house-of-rock/
