Early New Orleans Rock N Roll/R&B

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she has provided us with the first in-depth look at this New Orleans legend, together with some incredible unpublished news clippings and family photographs.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.

I have an 8CD Bear Family box of Prima's stuff. It's not all essential, not by half, but the peaks are fantastic. (I didn't pay what Bear Family's asking; I got it on eBay for about half that — dead stock from a record store that went out of business.)

Yeah, most of his comps are best approached as berry picker's baskets for your own mixes--8 CDs!! can't imagine, but congratz for getting it at a great price.
A variety of good-to-primo Prima here, also interviews w his co-stars, perfect foil Keely Smith and right hand man Sam Butera, although (with two hours to fill) sometimes the Vegas side of the conceptualizing is too much: Flying Burrito Bothers' "Sin City," perfect---Kay Starr's Wheel of Fortune," (starting w spooky, thrilling sound of the wheel itself), amen---Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" o shit. But overall it's---quite a riide:
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1116/Bourbon-Street-to-Vegas-with-Louis-Prima

I wish there was more footage of them on YouTube; the dynamic between Prima and Smith is fantastic. An obvious precursor to Sonny & Cher, too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAP9hC4GP_U

Yeah, look at her eyeing him, "Mm-hmm." But she's listening.

dow, Gumbo was not a singles collection (it was all recorded in '72) but rather a tribute to songs that were local hits for others in the 50s and 60s: Sugar Boy Crawford, Longhair, Earl King. I'm sure Mac heard a song like "Blow Wind Blow" by Junior Gordon on local radio often when he was young; it was the golden era of local and regional hits, and New Orleans produced a bunch of 'em.

I was listening to Tommy Ridgley the other day, another guy like Jessie Hill who really never made it nationally, but had many local hits, so when Snooks Eaglin would cover "Lavinia" or "Ooh Lawdy My Baby" those weren't obscurities to him, those were songs he would have heard on the radio in his youth.

And yes, that Rhino Prima comp is excellent fun.

Yeah, I said it was Dr. John rounding up other guys who knew the old stuff.

AKA Mac or Mack Rebennack (right spelling?), already a New Orleans sessioneer in his teens, like late 50s.

Sorry, reading and working at the same time!

No prob, I do type a lot. One of those Gumbis guys, one of the main guys on there, was Ronnie Barron, AKA Rev. Ether--made an album of that title I've never heard, but xgau nails this 'un too:

Ronnie Barron: Blues Delicacies, Vol. 1 [Vivid Sound, 1980]
The erstwhile Reverend Ether, who worked as Paul Butterfield's sideman after declining Dr. John's shingle, here adds a respectfully raunchy collection of standards to the modest store of first-rate New Orleans rock and roll LPs. This is no Wild Tchoupitoulas or Fats Domino or Crawfish Fiesta, but it sure holds its own against Mac Rebennack's Gumbo or Lee Dorsey's Yes We Can. A minor delight for the aficionado and a revelation for the uninitiated. Problem is, it'll cost you 15 bucks as a Japanese import, if you can find it. Rounder, Alligator, Flying Fish--help! Warners--oh never mind. A-

Cool, didn't know about that one. Definitely in a Dr. John bag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MubYIY1XJgk

Cool, thanks! Reminds me of Bobby Charles s/t '72 LP---he was a swamp pop country bandleader also into Fats Domino, who had a hit w BC's "Walkin' To New Orleans," declined' See You Later Alligator," but Charles did alright with it on Chess---Ed Ward tells his story here, w good musical excerpts https://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/150960729/the-untold-story-of-singer-bobby-charles">:https://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/150960729/the-untold-story-of-singer-bobby-charles As Ward says, Charles was on the lam from a Nashville pot bust, made his way up to Woodstock, chosen cos he liked the name, and stumbled into the right crowd, where he got to record his s/t, which we-uns used to meller out with after playing The Meters' Cabbage Alley and xp Dr. John's Gumbo---Light In The Attic reissued the original LP version, which they aptly describe here:
A virtual who’s who of classic ‘roots’ rock – the album features 10 Bobby Charles classics supported by the likes of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel of The Band, long time Neil Young sidekick Ben Keith, Bob Dylan’s former running mate Bob Neuwirth, session maverick Amos Garrett, the esteemed Dr. John, Geoff Muldaur and several others.

But this is far from an all-star jam session – this is an ensemble record in the truest sense of the word – with each musician simply supporting the Louisiana vibe that flows thru the 10 song collection of country, blues, R&B, and folk that all have that distinctive Bobby Charles signature sound..
Later it was a CD with three bonus tracks, and then a Rhino Handmade triple-CD! Expected to have way too many alt-takes, demos, etc., but here are a lot of titles I hadn't seen before:
https://media.rhino.com/press-release/bobby-charles Handmade CDs are ltd. ed. and go OOP fairly quickly, but this and others are still available as downloads, reasonably priced.
I find a lot of swamp pop (not that I've really heard a lot, but a lot of what I've heard) to be clunkly, at least compared to NOLA slippin'-bouncin' etc, but his LP has enough of the latter (and never clunks), though it is his boondocks stoner voice, making its way over the beat, floatin' to New Orleans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzBmPBVUPs

That's the original 10 tracks, although I think this playlist starts w the LP's closer? Good audio, anyway.

I can't believe how late to the game I am discovering Rockie Charles. He played many Jazzfests I attended in the 1990s/early oughts, but I never saw him, and I'm just now hearing his 1996 debut album Born for You. His vocals are very Al Green-inspired, and he had a great, soulful touch on guitar as well. Really kicking myself for never seeing him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xzG1pZ_A4

Thanks, hadn't heard of him! Here's a better link for the whole Bobby Charles s/t playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh0ysVWgxTiz5GHBmHfAhrXMDsRlt_8-l

Hurricane Ida destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes in south Louisiana after the category 4 storm roared ashore on August 29. WWL-TV in New Orleans reports that among those whose homes have been made all but unlivable is New Orleans R&B singer Clarence “Frogman” Henry. His residence in Algiers suffered extensive roof damage which has led to collapsed ceilings and a mold outbreak, yet the music icon continues to live amid the damage while he awaits his insurance claim.

https://www.offbeat.com/news/clarence-frogman-henry-continues-to-live-in-home-severely-damaged-by-hurricane-ida/?fbclid=IwAR16tVgUSxHrydphyr55A6UWYfT-zvrT3BjhMbCPEgf7nt9gj_56ejP7Vhw

Aw, that's sad. And frustrating.

Oh man, I didn't even know he was still alive! That's really terrible, I've gone through something similar but to a much milder extent. Dealing with the insurance companies was like having AAA come over and take a shit on you while you're sitting by your wrecked car.

Awful! In happier news, as I said over on[The Band.
The greatly expanded xpost Bobby Charles turned out to be all worthwhile:
Yall I just listened to the xpost Rhino Handmade 3-CD expansion digital ghost on Spotify (also available as downloads, like maybe all the Handmades; I've noticed Fugs, Beefheart, Television: two more LPs-worth of good-to excellent tracks, which hopefully he still had the rights to put (w/o re-recording) on yon self-released albums, when he reportedly fled Woodstock Babylon for Sweet Home Louisiana(nuthin weird goin' on down there, nuh-uh). Listening this way, I don't have the CD booklet, but who specifically played what on what has always been conjectural, according to my not-very-extensive research, and a lot of this sounds as Bandy as the original s/t; also, several cuts sound like they might incl. Garth *and* Dr. John, ideally enough. Anybody looking for cover material should def. check this out, "You Were There" def. rec. to Willie.

X-post-https://www.wwltv.com/article/weather/hurricane/help-rallies-around-frogman-henry-to-repair-ida-damaged-home/289-6eb6bd54-ebda-43aa-af78-97b4e18e4e12?fbclid=IwAR0pXgj_D6USnqc1tP2IeU8C_T_yCEcQDuyF5WuDoolmbWWjQch7_16SXwU

Volunteers helping Frogman Henry address Ida insurance issue and moldy clothes

Great thread, listening to Vol. 1 of the Cosimo Matassa Story comp, so many great songs.

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/american-south/2021/09/23/new-orleans-dew-drop-inn-revival-green-book-hotel/7413340002/

The home to much mid- 20th century New Orleans sounds the Dew Drop Inn may be coming back. Article has some interesting anecdotes on its historic roots

I see I first posted about Sugar Boy Crawford in this thread 15 years ago. I’ve had my eye out for a compilation of his stuff all these years and never found one. Even looked in record stores in New Orleans.

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