Customer Reviews

Italians in New Orleans (LA) (Images of America)

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New Orleans, and particularly the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) cannot be understood without appreciating the Italian, and especially Sicilian history of the city. This wide-ranging collection of pictures and captions, with short introductions, is the most comprehensive look at New Orleans Italians yet published.

But there's one amazing omission in its display of famous New Orleans Italian-Americans in the arts: Cosimo Matassa. Born of Sicilian parents in New Orleans in 1926, Matassa mid-wifed the cross-pollination from black R&B to white rock & roll in the 1940s and 50s. He was the first to record Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, Little Richard, and many other black artists at a time when the color line extended to recording studios. I don't know how the authors could have overlooked Matassa; he is very much alive and still has his office in his parent's former home on Dauphine street, above the grocery started by his parents and now run by his sons.
Aside from this glaring oversight, this book is highly recommended.