Early New Orleans Rock N Roll/R&B

R&B/R&R
Soul
Funk

My own fave N.O. lost classic - Willie Tee's cryptic "Teasin' You," which featured one of the earliest (1965) references to getting high in a hit song ("you done bought a lot of drinks, she's as high as she can be..."). And those old-time expressions he uses in the fadeout are insane ("You're nothing but a popcorn/Sucker John/They call you The Island Man/Because you think you're raising sand/They call you Doc/(couldn't make out this line)." Louisiana swamp-pop artist Tommy McClain did a real good version of this one.

As for Willie, he followed it up with "Thank You, John," which has a real confusing plotline...as best as I can tell, John took out Willie's girl against her wishes, and she comes back with bruises (!!!), so I think Willie is thanking John for all the $$$ they're gonna get after they sue him? At any rate, I never really cared for that one, but "Teasin' You" and "Walking Up A One-Way Street," both by Willie Tee, are classic examples of N.O. R&B morphing into soul.

http://www.offbeat.com/2010/03/12/rockie-charles-passes-away-this-morning/

RIP Rockie Charles, the New Orleans President of Soul

Just saw on Offbeat.com that New Orleans drummer Bunchy Johnson died. He was recently filmed in the opening episode of "Treme" (soon to air on HBO--created by David The Wire Simon) according to Treme writer David Mills-- see blog post below. Bunchie apparently drummed with Mardi Gras Indians and a who's who of old-school New Orleans r'n'b greats.

http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2010/03/bernard-bunchy-johnson.html

Bernard “Bunchy” Johnson, Drums
Bernard "Bunchy" Johnson grew up along the musically fertile streets of uptown New Orleans' 13th Ward and downtown's Treme neighborhood. As a youngster he second lined with Mardi Gras Indians in Uptown's Shakespeare Park, as well as in Treme, home of some of the city's best brass bands.

At 19, Bunchy went on tour with King Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, and Candi Staton. He returned to New Orleans to perform with Clarence "Frogman" Henry and The Deacons, the precursor to Chocolate Milk. He also performed and/or recorded with Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, The Dixie Cups, Irma Thomas, Lloyd Price, Jean Knight, Ernie K-Doe, Johnny Adams, and Ruth Brown. When drummer James Black passed away Bunchy was chosen to take his place in Dave Bartholemew's band, where he remains to this day. Bunchy's first self-titled CD/DVD will be released in the fall of 2009.

http://www.jointsjumpin.com/band.htm

http://www.offbeat.com/2010/04/29/two-nights-of-bobby-charles/

Probably leans more toward jazz, but I just picked this up and highly recommend it. This is the album Baptiste moved to a higher spot in hopes of saving it from the Katrina floods in HBO's Treme.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AM9vPFvML._SL500_AA300_.jpg

As good a thread as any to mention that Chris Kenner's "Land of 1000 Dances" is just amazing. So simple -- one chord, no real chorus -- but so entrancing. I'd known that Pickett was covering someone, but I didn't realize the original was so vastly different.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2721/4122865025_29792a5d8e.jpg

This book:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DM4BWRGGL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

(typo-ridden as it sometimes is) has great chapters on unsung heroes like Kenner -- who comes off mostly as as an amiable drunk who could never really get his act together. If I had a time machine, I would go to 50s New Orleans to hang with Chris Kenner and Smiley Lewis.

I just ordered both of Hannusch's books -- thanks for the recommendation Dan!

I have "I Hear You Knockin'" and must still finish reading it. Hannusch also writes for Offbeat Magazine out of New Orleans.

I need to get the John Broven book- "Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans."

http://johnbroven.com/jjb/books.html

I've had the Broven book from the library at some point, and can't remember whether I thought it was good, bad or mediocre.

I've reread "I Hear You Knockin'" numerous times. Even though, as noted above, crazy editing things happen (Ernie K-Doe turns into Ernie K-9 at one point!!) he gets some really great reminiscences from Tuts Washington, Earl King and others about guys like Smiley Lewis, who was never interviewed before he died.

I don't know if this recent CD compilation has been mentioned, but I can't recommend it highly enough.

http://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/images/product/5591.jpg

Broven did an appearance at a suburban W. DC library a year ago that I missed cuz I was out of town.

I have to get that comp.

Broven's book is definitive. The Cosimo box contains a lot of Little Richard stuff and other things that have been collected pretty thoroughly elsewhere. but it does have "Travelin' Mood" by Wee Willie Wayne, a New Orleans standard you can't find too easily, and which Snooks Eaglin used to do. The Wilson Pickett version of "Land of 1000 Dances" was cribbed from not the Kenner recording but from Cannibal and the Headhunters. The Pickett version is far less nuanced than the Kenner version. This is typical of all covers of New Orleans r&b, I've found.

Also got a copy of Aaron Neville's Tell It Like It Is LP from '67. A little lighter and sweeter than the run of NOLA r&b but a real good record nonetheless.

I found a bunch of Eddie Bo productions over the last year and my favorite of all of them is "Timber" by Chris Kenner, recording under a souldenym of, I believe, "Candy Lewis." Just incredible. Chris Kenner gives me hope for the human race in all its imperfections.

Yeah, the Cosimo box contains a fair amount of songs I already owned, but a TON I had never heard before. The oft-anthologized stuff sits next to Little Leo (Lloyd Price's brother,) Peewee Crayton and vocal groups like The Barons. It works like the Stax boxsets for me (with Otis Redding and Sam & Dave interspersed with Mable John and Ruby Johnson) in that it plays really well across 4 discs, and there really aren't any duds in the set.

And yeah, "Timber" is fab!

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/09/cosimo_matassas_jm_recording_s.html

Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studio named Rock and Roll Landmark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlBuc863hU0

http://cosimocode.com/

Author Broven, plus Red kelly and others re producer Cosimo Matassa

Totally into the idea of the Cosimo Code, still not exactly sure what it is. Have a few of those Broven books but haven't really gotten around to reading them yet.

http://cosimocode.com/scarface.html

After the launch of The Cosimo Code last year, John Broven was contacted by Deborah Williams, the daughter of the late John 'Scarface' Williams. Through telephone conversations and other corresepondence, she has provided us with the first in-depth look at this New Orleans legend, together with some incredible unpublished news clippings and family photographs.

Williams was an integral member of Huey Smith's Clowns in the golden age of New Orleans R&B and, along with Bobby Marchan, was the voice of the Clowns with his declamatory, enthusiastic vocals. Then Williams formed his own group, the Tick Tocks, which was recorded by Harold Battiste and Allen Toussaint in the 1960s. Williams, much revered among the New Orleans music community - especially by Dr. John and Aaron Neville - was murdered in 1972 before the New Orleans R&B revival took place, hence his comparative anonymity for far too many years... Lovingly written by Williams' own daughter, the profile below will hopefully change all that!

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/09/cosimo_matassa_new_orleans_rec.html

Cosimo Matassa, New Orleans recording studio owner, engineer and rock 'n' roll pioneer, has died

Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on September 11, 2014 at 8:53 PM, updated September 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM

Cosimo Matassa, the New Orleans studio owner and recording engineer who helped craft timeless recordings by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Irma Thomas, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, Lloyd Price, Aaron Neville, Dr. John and many others, died Thursday (Sept. 11) at Ochsner Medical Center. He was 88.

The sound created by Domino, producer Dave Bartholomew and Mr. Matassa at J&M Recording on North Rampart Street staked New Orleans' claim as the birthplace not just of jazz, but of rock 'n' roll as well.

excerpt from link. RIP oh great engineer

So many amazing records

RIP

Damn damn damn. In the back of my mind I thought many times of finding a way to interview him. I think over the years he probably shared as much information as he remembered, though. RIP sir, you made some of the best records ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj33EGMbazY

both of the 4cd boxsets are on spotify, make them both into one huge playlist and put that bitch on shuffle

Good idea

The Cosimo code page upthread has lots of great stuff in addition to the code:

In 1960, Matassa began assigning hyphenated matrix numbers to the 45s he mastered at his studio on Governor Nicholls Street. We have recently discovered that these 'Cosimo Code' numbers followed a set chronological pattern. It is the mission of this site to attempt to log, by year, every known recording emblazoned with this code.

Is v. 1 of the box set available on US Spotify? I can only find v. 2.

looks like a lot of the tracks have disappeared but here: http://open.spotify.com/album/1R9tlJyqXxgTN4YvrrfzUX

spotify links are awful maybe this one: spotify:album:1R9tlJyqXxgTN4YvrrfzUX

Found it, thanks!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/arts/music/cosimo-matassa-whose-studio-birthed-a-rock-n-roll-sound-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

excerpt from NY Times obit

“Virtually every R&B record made in New Orleans between the late ’40s and the early ’70s was engineered by Cosimo Matassa, and recorded in one of his four studios,” Jeff Hannusch wrote in “I Hear You Knockin’: The Sound of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues” (1985).

More than 250 nationally charting singles and 21 gold records were recorded at the studio, most of them distinguished by what came to be known as the Cosimo sound: strong drums, heavy bass, light piano, heavy guitar and light horns. It is sometimes also called simply the New Orleans sound.

The studio became a sought-after resource for the independent labels that emerged or grew in importance after World War II. Chess, Aladdin, De Luxe, Atlantic, Savoy and Specialty, among others, used the studio, originally for just $15 an hour.

The hits born there included Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”; Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll”; Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”; Smiley Lewis’s “I Hear You Knockin’ ”; Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise”; and Chris Kenner’s “Land of 1,000 Dances.”

Some music historians say that rock ’n’ roll began in 1947 when Roy Brown recorded “Good Rockin’ Tonight” at J & M. Others say a signal moment came on Dec. 10, 1949, when Fats Domino cut eight songs there, including his first commercially released single, “The Fat Man.”

I knew he recorded a lot of stuff I loved, but I had no idea of the sheer breadth. That Big Joe's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was recorded by Matassa was news to me, but it makes sense when you hear it.

I hear those records differently than the Times reviewer: heavy piano and horns, not so much guitar. This one by Eddie Bo, featuring the great Edgar Blanchard, is a rocking exception though. Guitar riff on this is just insidious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7GLuZ_Dedw

another Matassa obit

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/creator-of-the-cosimo-sound-dies/

Cosimo Matassa
April 13, 1926 – September 11, 2014
by Geraldine Wyckoff
September 22, 2014

Frankie Ford last week and now

https://www.offbeat.com/news/new-orleans-drummer-smokey-johnson-dies/

New Orleans drummer who played on Professor Longhair's "Big Chief," Earl King's "Trick Bag," and, under his own name, the Mardi Gras classic "It Ain't My Fault."

Damn.

rip

Aw crap, I hadn't heard about Frankie Ford either. It was so hard to miss Ponderosa Stomp this year, because my chances of ever seeing Mabel John or Joe Clay are getting fewer.

rip, so underrated. "Ain't My Fault" is everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlBuc863hU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxi2fFeIY38

I forget who I heard the story from, maybe Bob French, about Smokey Johnson in the record label office saying "I've got a song to record!" and playing that beat on the table, then being told something to the effect of "um that's not a song yet" and going back to write the melody.

we like birdland

It's like a million degrees in Minneapolis (well, 90+ F) so I am pretending I am in New Orleans and listening to a Jessie Hill compilation. These sessions must have been an amazing, drunken party. Half the songs sound the same, trying to rewrite "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" to find another hit, but they're all great! "Scoop Scoobie Doobie" is the most ridiculous piece of hollering nonsense, riding that unstoppable New Orleans beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyHDh4rKGXI

Ridiculous & great, love that swung tambourine against everything else.

Also in case people don't know:

He was grandfather to brothers Troy "Trombone Shorty" and James Andrews, and their cousins Glen David Andrews and Travis "Trumpet Black" Hill

Damn, that Jessie Hill song is creating a great disturbance in my mind (and yeah, the swung tambourine is indeed esp awesome); wish I could be walking across Frenchmen Street right now sweating through my mask--thanks!

xp I had actually just been listening to James' Satchmo of the Ghetto, which opens with a song about Jessie that borrows bits from both "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" and "Scoop Scoobie Doobie." That prompted a deep dive into his granddad's stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPmiD4bNop4

Very, very informative thread, with lots of appealing comments, enticing descriptions, thanks! For me the gateway was Dr. John's early 70s Gumbo, ace choice of singles way the fuck OOP then, don't know if they ever did all make it to the same place again. if you can stand his vocal jive-shtick at all (and indeed, his voice in extended interviews was much the same)longtime NOLA studio rat Mac Rebbenack is the guide for this, with a round-up of the right players and roungh & ready sound, and yeah sounds like they've known all these songs from an early age (some of the records weren't really that old, but wtf OOP).
Also New Orleans as Hell, though he finally hit big in Vegas (think he started working in late 1930s?): leavu us not forget my man Louis Prima; can't top xgau's description of another gateway:
Zooma Zooma: The Best of Louis Prima [Rhino, 1990]
A Vegas fixture for a quarter century before he died at 67 in 1978, this Storyville-born Sicilian singer-trumpeter shared his entertainment philosophy as well as his Christian name with Armstrong and Jordan. He crossed over r&b with 1950's "Oh, Babe!" but it was the honking tenor and rough vocal cameos of his compatriot Sam Butera that added rock and roll anti-class to a jazz act that pitted Prima's jocular leads against the sensible musicality of his consort Keely Smith. Prima was a go-for-the-gut clown whose signature musical tactic was to intersperse flat-out novelties like "Robin Hood" and "Jump, Jive an' Wail" with two-song medleys that moved the crap-shooting punters on to "I Ain't Got Nobody" before "Just a Gigolo" got old. Since 1990, when Rhino assembled these 18 tracks (14 on cassette, remember that one?), there have been more straight reissues, reshuffled comps, radio transcriptions, and live exhumations than I want to hear or count. More likely to cost four bucks than the 40 some chiselers are charging, this out-of-print 18-track laff-fest is probably the best, probably because it keeps the rock market in mind. The best alternative I've heard is the 1991 Capitol Collectors Series, which has eight more tracks but omits the nostalgic "Robin Hood" and the fat "Them There Eyes"/"Honeysuckle Rose." Forget Capitol's 26-track 2007 Jump, Jive an' Wail: The Essential Louis Prima, with its non-NAACP "Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)," pre-IIADL "Luigi," and bored run-throughs of "Hello Dolly" and "Cabaret." The pura the zooma the betta. A Although those others are worth checking out online, if you can't get enough.

Thanks for the update too. I revisited Locked Down recently - excellent album, I regret missing the BAM residency that accompanied it.

Also very happy that New Orleans has officially renamed Robert E. Lee Boulevard as Allen Toussaint Boulevard. (The change had won a unanimous vote in January, and they just finished implementing it recently.)

Toussaint's Austin City Limits episode is reairing this week.

https://acltv.com/

Nice! (And they're even streaming it at that link post-broadcast) Thanks for the tip!

Elvis Costello interview about New Orleans. He just did a tribute to Dave Bartholomew with Dirty Dozen Brass Band @ Jazz Fest

But mostly Costello spoke of Bartholomew, New Orleans music and culture and his excited anticipation of this return.

Let’s talk about Dave Bartholomew. How did you first become aware of him?

Well, the same as with Allen, although Allen started in the late ’50s and Dave started working in the late ’40s. I was aware [of Dave], even if it was via other people doing Fats Domino sounds. I’d heard Fats Domino. I don’t think I was aware of many Dave Bartholomew records growing up in England. I think mostly as I learned more about rock ’n’ roll—in the same way you know Sam Phillips was the man responsible for Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis—you kind of learned that Dave Bartholomew was the man working the gears behind Fats Domino. All that sound.

And then, little by little, I learned what records he had produced other than those and then I heard his own—a lot of the instrumental records. Basin Street Breakdown [from 1949] is my favorite. I could play that guitar solo. Give me a couple of notes and play them over and over and over and over and over and over and over, over and over and over again. I’m pretty good at that. Going up and down the neck? Not so hot. I couldn’t play you any Eddie Van Halen solos. I’m Basin Street Breakdown, for sure. That’s right in my attitude.

...Dave Bartholomew was one of those people. I don’t know of him producing so many people from outside the city, do you? I don’t think people sought him out in the same way as in the ’70s people did with the next generation—Frankie Miller or Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer [all working with Allen Toussaint].

But it’s as if the stack of records that he made was so influential that a resonance of him—even though some of them were made in 1951—we were still hearing him. We’re still decoding them, and they sound superficially simple. Try playing any of those things and get them to sound as good as they do. You can play the changes, but you won’t get that feel.

And the studio factored into that, Cosimo Matassa’s J&M.

In some ways, New Orleans is more connected to the way in which music is conceived in Kingston [Jamaica] than in Chicago, in that there’s a recognizable disposition in a lot of the music, even though the styles of the producers are so different. But there’s something distinct from the rest of America in the same way as, you know, music from Trinidad is very different to music from Jamaica. As somebody who learned almost everything from records, I puzzle the records out of New Orleans the same way I puzzle the records out of Kingston. “What are they doing?” It’s not just that the beat is different. It’s everything is different. The sound, the approach to sound is different. The approach to harmony is different. The intonation of horns and voices is distinct to cities. And for myself, because I grew up around brass players in a dance band that my dad was with, I can tell you in two seconds whether a record’s made in England or America. I can tell from what town.

https://www.offbeat.com/articles/elvis-costello-talks-back/

Elvis Costello has so much music knowledge and plays with such great musicians, I just wish his music was at all listenable for me.

Ha, otm. And I like to consider myself a fan of sorts, although of course I prefer his earlier work.

I haven't paid much attention to Elvis post-Imperial Bedroom, but I closed out one of the last Jazzfests I attended in 2008 seeing him with Toussaint and it was excellent.

...although his new album's getting rave reviews as a return to vintage form and it left me kinda flat.

By far my favorite EC records came from the classic years (1977-1986). I still like certain things after that, but it's like comparing McCartney's solo/Wings stuff with the Beatles in that there's just no comparison, in terms of quality, consistency, innovation, influence, etc.

The stuff he did with Toussaint is very enjoyable, but it also leans heavily on Toussaint's work. (EC's two favorite Lee Dorsey albums in particular.) The album they made together only has a few originals on it IIRC, but to be fair, they've collaborated on a few things before like "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" from Spike (which is nice). And yes, I'm one of those who really liked the new album. The comparisons to his earliest work feel a little misleading - it's more rocking, but I wouldn't mistake it for older songs. Like Hey Clockface had a few excellent rockers on there that feel more apiece, it's just that this time around he did an album focused of them instead of just a few cuts alongside a lot of experiments.

RIP Clarence Frogman Henry at 87...of "Ain't Got No Home" fame

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/arts/music/clarence-henry-dead.html

One year at Jazzfest Frogman was trying to get the crowd to sing along to “You Always Hurt The One You Love” and heckling the frat boys/sorority babes in the front rows (probably staking their spot for Jimmy Buffett or somebody later): “You don’t even know this song! What are you doing up here?”

Interesting. I saw him at Jazzfest too but only remember those distinctive ways he sang the various verses of his hit

George French was still in high school when his cousin Dave Bartholomew hired him to play Fats Domino’s sessions at Cosimo Matassa’s studio. His other session work includes Earl King’s “Trick Bag,” Robert Parker’s “Barefootin’” and Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias’ “Handa Wanda.

RIP New Orleans bassist George French

I picked up the Acrobat 2CD of Earl King's singles last month semi by chance in a local 2nd hand shop. Great blues/ r'n'b with a 2nd line influence running through it.
Had gone in to pick up a Jesse Fuller set on the same label and saw it. A friend saw I'd picked it up and said he was really good. Not sure if I'd heard him before, do know the Hendrix cover. Love the compilation now.

Pretty impressive early career there

are there any "rock" albums from New Orleans where the guitar sort of imitates the amazing regional piano style?

Some discussion of New Orleans rockabilly here:

https://musicrising.tulane.edu/discover/themes/rockabilly/

Been a fan of Jessie Hill for some time and recently found a record I didn't know was out there. This just barely fits in Fritz's original suggestion of keeping this pre-'67.

I love Jessie's earlier stuff but have also had a copy of that Shirley & Jessie 45 of Ivory Tower / You Can't Fight Love from 1966 and was hunting around for more stuff from that time period when Discogs showed me this:
http://i.postimg.cc/nhw08763/IMG-3348.jpg

There seems to be next to no information about this but it appears to be stuff from those 1966 sessions released as a 1978 tax scam record on Crazy Cajun. It has both sides of both Shirley and Jessie singles, a longer version of Jessie's My Children, My Children, a second Barbara Lynn cover (You'll Lose A Good Thing), and some other tracks including a part 1/part 2 lost Jessie single Just A Little Ugly. I think this is all after Mac and Shirley and Jessie moved to LA and were working as session musicians/writers/singers (Jessie plays drums on Buffalo Springfield/Neil Young's Down to The Wire!) It seems like this stuff should be properly collected somewhere - there's a greyed out (at least in the US) album on Spotify called Don't Fight It by Shirley & Jesse Hill with most of these tracks plus others, but I can't hear it to check if it's any different. A new LP in mono would be great - this 1978 record has some fake stereo thing going on, but sounds correct when I fold it back to mono.

I love "My Children, My Children", I'll have to track that down!

This revive reminded me to look again for a Sugar Boy Crawford compilation, and I found a used one on CD and ordered it. Been wanting one for years!

Irma Thomas has a new album out- songs written with Galactic, and one cover. Not a Galactic fan but this is ok

Irma Thomas and Galactic album is called "Audience with the Queen"

i listen to a lot of retro jambandy brassy funk so that album got rec'd to me by spotify, i am enjoying it as well

RIP writer Jeff Hannusch who wrote 2 books on New Orleans music & wrote for Offbeat magazine and others.

https://hnoc.org/events/celebrating-cosimo-matassa?fbclid=IwZnRzaARhkrpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeilDeVZM9G9R0MZY7OuO1l4MVbL5ZB2hQIDjFwJfMSV1exLAOaigi1dhrvrc_aem_OJL102FVZYGOpg3KZ0RRww

There was a heavenly 100th birthday celebration for Cosimo Matassa in New Orleans April 18th