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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Cosimo's Factory

One of the most important figures in the history of rock 'n roll, Cosimo Matassa, has died at 88.  Huh? Who's he?   He only engineered nearly every hit record that came out of New Orleans from the late-1940s to the 1960s, or they emerged from his studio, and then kept going--Tim White interviewed him for me at Crawdaddy around 1976.  Two of the songs often cited as the "first true rock 'n roll records" both came out of his studio.  And dozens of classic from Fats to Little Richard to Ray Charles to Irma Thomas to Dr. John and "Sea Cruise" and Allen Toussaint and beyond. See Times-Picayune obit for more.  And then there was the Professor in 1950  (whistling now used in Subaru commercial):




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