As Allen Toussaint took over as leading producer in New Orleans, the initial wave of session men from Dave Bartholomew’s band were replaced or joined by musicians from the next generation. They can be heard on Ace Records compilation of New Orleans hits “Cracking the Cosimo Code”.
Nat Perilliat
Nat Perilliat was born in New Orleans in 1936. Like many of the local session musicians, he learned to play as a youngster, taking up piano, then alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. One of his earliest jobs was a residency at the Caffin Theatre, and later he played with Professor Longhair, Smiley Lewis and Shirley and Lee. At the same time, he was busy too in the field of jazz music, working with Ellis Marsalis, Alvin Batiste, and others. From the late fifties and into the sixties, he did session work at Cosimo Studios, supporting Fats Domino, Barbara George, and Allen Toussaint. In 1962 Perilliat formed his own jazz band.
George Davis
George Davis was born in New Orleans in 1938. He was a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and songwriter. He played guitar, bass, saxophone, and oboe. In the early sixties he played on Lee Dorsey’s “Working in the Coal Mine”. He was interested in developing the business side of New Orleans music and set up first a production company with Alvin “Red” Tyler and Warren Parker and then a record label Parlo Records. Davis had co-written a song called “Tell It Like It Is”, which he recorded with Aaron Neville. When local record companies and then bigger companies in New York failed to pick up the song, he and his partners decided to form Parlo and release it themselves. Davis arranged the song and played baritone saxophone on the recording. Tentatively, they pressed two thousand copies in 1966. The song went to number one on the R&B chart and number two on the Pop chart. Sadly, it was Parlo’s only hit!
Roy Montrell
Roy Montrell was born in New Orleans in 1928. He played guitar and was active as a session musician in the city from the early years of New Orleans R&B. He recorded with Little Richard, Lloyd Price and Fats Domino, and played on a large number of the recordings made in Cosimo Matassa’s studios. He also joined Fats Domino’s touring band. He worked for over twenty years in the industry, but only cut two songs under his own name.
Peter “Chuck” Badie
Bass player Chuck Badie was born in New Orleans in 1925. His father was a saxophone player in local brass bands, so Peter Badie grew up in a world of music. After the war, he studied at Grunewald Music School until 1949, and then joined first Roy Brown’s band and then Paul Gayten, followed by Dave Bartholomew. He later spent several years working with Lionel Hampton, as a member of his touring band. During the early sixties, Badie was approached by Allen Toussaint, who wanted him to play on recording sessions for Minit and Instant artists, and Badie accepted gladly. He played on many of the recordings made at the Cosimo Studios by these artists. It was difficult to make a living from live gigs, and most professional musicians also did session work to generate income. He was always glad when Allen Toussaint called!
When Harold Battiste set up AFO Records in 1961, Badie joined the new label and played as one of the AFO Executives. He was proud to be part of Battiste’s plan to enable musicians and artists to profit more fairly from the fruits of their labours. He then went with Battiste to Los Angeles, in search of more work, but returned to New Orleans after a year or so. He played with Snooks Eaglin and Smokey Johnson, before joining Edward Frank’s jazz band. He later gave up playing professionally, due to health problems, but returned in the 1990s to play with Dr. John.
He was there at the beginning and still there at the end of the golden era of New Orleans R&B.
John Boudreaux
Drummer John Boudreaux was born in New Roads, Louisiana, in 1936 and moved to New Orleans in the late forties with his mother to live with his grandmother. Soon after arriving in the Crescent City, he started to learn to play drums, simply because a drum was cheaper than a saxophone. In 1952 he played a few sessions with Professor Longhair, alongside Harold Battiste on saxophone, slowly building up a reputation locally. When the senior New Orleans session drummer Earl Palmer left to go to Los Angeles in 1957, John Boudreaux soon displaced Charles Williams as the go-to session drummer at the Cosimo Studios. He played on a string of hits, including Irma Thomas’ “Don’t Mess With My Man”, Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-In-Law”, Chris Kenner’s “I Like It Like That” and Lee Dorsey’s “Ya-Ya”.
Dr. John has spoken of the Boudreaux’s technique: “What John Boudreaux was doing on drums deserves a special look. Instead of playing the backbeat on the snare drum, he played all four beats on the snare, a little New Orleans funk cha-cha.” (Offbeat Magazine, 7th Feb 2017)
Like many of his fellow session men, Boudreaux was attracted to AFO Records and moved to Los Angeles when Harold Battiste relocated the company in the sixties. He worked with Sam Cooke, Sonny & Cher, Tami Lynn and many more, until his death in Los Angeles in 1917.
Melvin Lastie
Melvin Lastie was born in New Orleans in 1930, into a large, musical family. He took up the trumpet and, at the age of fifteen, joined the Paul Barbarin Jazz Band. He later added flugelhorn and cornet to the list of instruments he played. Before he left high school, he set up a jazz band, whose piano player went on to achieve great success. His name was Antoine Domino, better known later as “Fats”, of course. After a tour playing with Hosa Hill’s band and military service, he set up the Melvin Lastie Orchestra in 1948. Melvin, David, and Walter Lastie also played together professionally, as the Lastie Brothers. For the next decade, Melvin worked in the New Orleans studios, backing the local artists from Roy Brown to Barbara George.
Melvin became the local representative for the American Federation of Musicians, overseeing all New Orleans recording transactions on behalf of the union. This work led to a major decision taken by Melvin in 1961, when he joined Harold Battiste in forming AFO Records as a musicians’ cooperative. When the company relocated to Los Angeles in 1963, Harold and Melvin began producing for Sam Cooke’s label and worked on several of Sam’s hits, including “A Change Is Gonna Come”. He went on to work with many famous names, with Aretha Franklin and Dr. John standing out. He died in New Orleans in 1972, at the age of forty-two.
In 1976, Opus 43 Records issued an album recorded by Mel Lastie with Harold Battiste in 1970, but not released at the time. It is a fine tribute to two of New Orleans loyal musicians.
Smokey Johnson
Smokey Johnson was a New Orleans drummer, who made a strong contribution to the development of R&B in the city. He was born in 1936 and learned to play trombone and then drums, becoming a professional musician at the age of seventeen. In 1957, he replaced Earl Palmer in Dave Bartholomew’s band, recording with Fats Domino, Earl King and Professor Longhair.
Smokey Johnson (Photographer unknown, Wikipedia)
In 1963, he went to Detroit to record at Motown Records, with a group of New Orleans musicians, that included Earl King and Wardell Quezergue. Smokey must have been noticed by Berry Gordy and the folk at Motown, as he stayed for a couple of months to work alongside the Funk Brothers. On his return to his home city, he joined Wardell Quezergue’s Nola Records as the house drummer, developing a funky jazz-inspired sound.
In 1973 he joined Fats Domino’s touring band and remained with him for twenty years. Whenever he could during the schedule of touring, Smokey played Jazz with his friends in New Orleans. He was forced to leave his home by Hurricane Katrina. After a long illness, he died in 2015.
James Booker: Please see separate article on this site.
George and Bob French
George is a New Orleans bass player and vocalist. Bob, who died in 2012, was a drummer. They both took inspiration from their father, who was a professional banjo player. Albert “Papa” French took over the leadership of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band in the 1950s and his sons grew up in the world of New Orleans jazz.
George decided early on that he preferred R&B, probably influenced by his cousin Dave Bartholomew, who asked him to play on one of Fats Domino’s sessions, when George was still in high school.
Bob’s first session was in 1954, with Art and Charles Neville, plus James Booker. The brothers were given many opportunities to play with local artists at Cosimo Matassa’s studios. Many years later, Bob took over the leadership of his father’s jazz band.
Some of these session men knew each other from school days or from early meetings at the studios. Many of them grew up in families imbued with a love of music, so it is no surprise that many of them were largely self-taught. The fact that Cosimo Matassa’s studios and later Allen Toussaint/Marshall Sehorn’s Sea-Saint studios were the venues where all the main artists recorded drew the session men together into a very close-knit team. They respected and trusted each other, and producers trusted them.
