As most of you now know, legendary studio owner and recording engineer Cosimo Matassa passed away on September 11, 2014. WWOZ has dedicated some significant airtime to the fantastic contributions Matassa made to the New Orleans sound, as well as the development of rock'n'roll and R&B in general, since his death a few weeks ago.

However, there's a great website that I'd like to direct your attention to, as well: "The Cosimo Code." The site features a unique selection of Matassa's many accomplishments and presents his work in a neat chronological order that allows the reader/listener to follow along as his career developed and new recordings were issued.

The Cosimo Code itself isn't the work of a Matassa family member, close friend, or interested fan, however-- it was developed by Matassa. In 1960, he began assigning hyphenated matrix numbers to the 45s, EPs, and LPs he mastered at his studio on Governor Nicholls. The site's stated mission is to "attempt to log, by year, every known recording emblazoned with this code." Work is still being done (with a call for contributions!) on unlocking the code and tying it to the correct recordings.

SInce the code starts in 1960, the site (and code) excludes some of Matassa's famous work with Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew, and Little Richard, but there's still a huge wealth of material here, including photos, scans of notes and other artifacts and, of course, music.

http://cosimocode.com/

Interested in contributing or learning more about the coding system? Check out the video below.