“There’s no first rock ‘n’ roll record,” Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said September 24, 2010, while standing outside 840 N. Rampart St., the one-time home of J&M Studios. “In 1949 when the gentlemen over here with the trumpet, when he and Fats Domino made ‘The Fat Man,’ you can argue that that’s the conceptual start for all this music.” Stewart stood with Dave Bartholomew to honor what was arguably the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll. Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that it will induct the man who owned, operated and engineered sessions at J&M Studios, Cosimo Matassa.

Matassa is one of four non-performers who will be honored at the next induction ceremony, which will take place April 14. Producers Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns will be recognized, as will songwriter Don Kirshner, who made his reputation hosting television’s Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. The Beastie Boys, Donovan, Guns N’ Roses, Laura Nyro, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Small Faces/the Faces will also be inducted, as will blues guitarist Freddie King as an “Early Influence.”