From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Apr 13, 2002  2:24 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Cosimo Matassa
 
COSIMO MATASSA

Born 13 April 1926, New Orleans, Louisiana

Engineer / studio owner.
As an engineer and proprietor of J&M Studios and Cosimo Recording Studio in
New Orleans, Cosimo Matassa was crucial to the development of the New
Orleans R&B, rock 'n' roll and soul sound of the '50s and '60s. Little
Richard and Fats Domino recorded some of their greatest hits at these
studios, and major instrumentalists and producers like Dr. John and
Allen Toussaint got early experience there. Matassa was originally
in the jukebox and record retail business, starting his studio at the back
of his shop in 1945. It was in the ten-by-twelve-foot J&M Studios that
Fats Domino's "The Fat Man", one of the first New Orleans R&B classics
and one of the first records of any sort to be retroactively classified as
rock and roll, was recorded. In 1955, he moved to the larger Cosimo
Recording Studio, and over the next decade the flow of New Orleans
R&B continued, with records by giants like Allen Toussaint and Lee
Dorsey. He moved the studio again in 1966, although this failed by the
end of the '60s. Matassa was also involved in Allen Toussaint's Sea-Saint
Studios, which recorded acts like Paul McCartney, Dr. John, the Neville
Brothers and LaBelle in the '70s, and was still in operation in the '90s.
Matassa was not a producer and independent label entrepreneur, like
Sam Phillips, but as an engineer he was skilled at microphone placement
and capturing the sound of New Orleans R&B with a naturalistic feel.
As explained by Dr. John in John Broven's "Walking To New Orleans",
"Cosimo was the type of engineer who believed in one type of scene.
He would set the knobs for the session and very rarely moved anything.
If the piano was mixed too low at the beginning it would stay mixed too
low until the end of the session, unless the producer came and changed it.
But this was how record sessions were conducted for a long time. He
developed what is known as the 'Cosimo Sound' which was strong
drums, heavy bass, light piano, heavy guitar and light horn sound and
a strong vocal lead. "That was the start of what eventually became
known as the New Orleans Sound, with the guitar doubling the bass
line, the baritone and tenor doubling the bass line, making it a real strong
sound and playing around it. It got to be known as 'Cosimo's Sound' but it
was the musicians' sound because they were playing the music. But it was his
little mix job which got the credit, and the record companies used to say,
'Cos has got a good sound, so we'll cut a record in New Orleans.' There
were so many hits coming out of New Orleans and this was why the record
companies were interested in coming there."

Further reading: Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin", p. 107-118.
For a list of the most important records Matassa has engineered, see:
http://www.louisianamusic.org/cosimo_101.htm