A Small Room Where Rock and Roll Was Recorded

At the corner of North Rampart and Dumaine, across from Armstrong Park, Cosimo Matassa opened a recording studio in 1945 at the back of his family's J&M Music Shop. He was 18. The studio room measured about fifteen by sixteen feet. In it Roy Brown recorded "Good Rocking Tonight" in 1947, Fats Domino cut "The Fat Man" on December 10, 1949, Professor Longhair made "Tipitina" in 1953, and Little Richard recorded "Tutti Frutti" in 1955. In the mid-1950s Matassa moved to a larger studio on Governor Nicholls Street, and the corner building passed to other businesses. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later named it one of its landmarks. In April 2025 the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation bought the building, with plans to make it home to its archives.