Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew pose with Cosimo Matassa

Petition Goes Live to Change Governor Nicholls Street to Cosimo Matassa Street

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The following is an open letter to Mayor Cantrell and the City of New Orleans from Rob Florence who is urging the City to rename Governor Nicholls Street to Cosmio Matassa Street. To sign the petition and show your support, click here and here. 

Hello Mayor and City Council,

As you and the City Council Street Renaming Commission work to remove Confederate generals’ names from streets, please seriously consider changing Governor Nicholls to Cosimo Matassa Street.  From 1956 to 1965, Mr. Matassa operated his legendary recording studio at 523 and 525 Governor Nicholls Street.  Many of New Orleans greatest musicians credit him with being instrumental in creating the “New Orleans Sound” (also known as the “Cosimo Sound,” which made him uncomfortable due to his humility) and being a major contributor to the birth of rock n roll.

Aside from being a Confederate general not from New Orleans, Governor Nicholls’ had a scandalous election; he moved the state capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge; and in 1891 when 11 Sicilians were lynched at Parish Prison, the Italian consul asked the Governor Nicholls to intervene and he declined. Whereas from 1956 to 1965, Mr. Matassa, native New Orleanian and son of Sicilian immigrants, operated his legendary recording studio at 523 and 525 Governor Nicholls Street.

In his Governor Nicholls Street studios, Mr. Matassa engineered records by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner, Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Bobby Charles, and many others.  He was also very racially progressive during the days of Jim Crow segregation.

Cosimo contributed to racial and broadcasting history by hosting broadcaster Vernon “Dr. Daddy-O” Winslow, the city’s first African-American D.J., the person who integrated New Orleans radio.  Winslow was hired to write scripts for WJMR.  The station wouldn’t let him on the air but they made him teach a white D.J.,  who Winslow named “Poppa Stoppa,” to speak with a black dialect.

Dr. Daddy-O became Louisiana’s first black announcer to broadcast on air  when hired by WWEZ in 1949 with his top-rated show “Jivin’ with Jax.”   Based in the Jung Hotel, WWEZ wouldn’t allow Winslow in the hotel lobby and made him ride the freight elevator.  Cosimo was disgusted by this treatment so built a console and let Dr. Daddy-O broadcast from J&M studio, where he played Roy Brown, Fats, Dave, and many other Cosimo artists, which helped to popularize “The Fat Man

Furthermore, Cosimo Matassa is a great name for a street.  It would make New Orleans the only city in the world where you could meet someone at the corner of Henriette Delille and Cosimo Matassa.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best wishes,

Rob Florence

Rob Florence is currently working on a documentary about J&M, Cosimo’s, and Jazz City, the three studios run by Cosimo Matassa.