"GOOD ROCKIN" FROM J&M

From NOLA.com:

To trumpeter Porgy Jones, the corner of North Rampart and Dumaine streets is hallowed.

"I feel like I'm going to kiss the ground," said Jones, 71, on Friday, just before the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum designated Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studio as a historic Rock and Roll Landmark, one of 11 nationwide.

It was here, in a small backroom at 840 N. Rampart St., that Matassa engineered and produced some of rock 'n' roll's earliest hits in a studio given the initials of his father, John Matassa.

A few J&M recordings -- including Fats Domino's single "The Fat Man", Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" and Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" -- have sometimes been called the first rock 'n' roll record. Incorrect, said Hall of Fame president Terry Stewart: Scholars agree there is no definitive first record classified as rock, said Stewart as he stood Friday in front of the former studio, now a laundromat, at the edge of the French Quarter.

What's indisputable, Stewart said, is that when the genre was in its infancy, "the baby got rocked right here in this building."

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 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, as well as 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, Lloyd Price and many others.

Awright! This IS good news. Perhaps the building is secure from the wrecking ball, which has already destroyed many a historic building in New Orleans.



In the early 1950s, I discovered rock 'n' roll playing on the jukeboxes in the lounges in New Orleans, which, at that time, had virtually no lower age limits. I would have been perhaps 16. Many of the songs included double-entendre lyrics, so this was not music that could be played or listened to at home, but it was great for jitterbugging in a place where parents were not around.

Below is a list from the Times-Picayune of recordings made at J&M:

"Good Rockin' Tonight" - Roy Brown - 1947

"Long About Midnight" - Roy Brown - 1948

"Mardi Gras in New Orleans" - Professor Longhair 1948

"The Fat Man" - Fats Domino - 1949

"Goin' Home" - Fats Domino - 1951

"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" - Fats Domino - 1952

"Tipitina" - Professor Longhair - 1953

"Feelin' Sad" - Ray Charles - 1953

"Going to the River" - Fats Domino - 1953

"The things That I Used to Do" - Guitar Slim - 1953

"Jock-a-Mo" - Sugar Boy Crawford - 1953

"Blue Monday" - Smiley Lewis - 1953

"I Hear You Knocking" - Smiley Lewis - 1955

"Poor Me" - Fats Domino - 1955

"Tutti Frutti" - Little Richard - 1955

"(See You) Later Alligator" - Bobby Charles - 1955

"My Blue Heaven - Fats Domino - 1955

"Long Tall Sally" - Little Richard - 1956

Bear with me on my nostalgic trip down memory lane. I loved putting together this post.

UPDATE: Here's a photo which shows the entire building.