Cosimo Matassa is not dead yet

I did not know that. For those of you who don't know this, much of the music that first came to be called rock and roll was more or less created in New Orleans. And most of it was recorded by Matassa.

As a self-taught engineer and studio operator, Matassa, 83, was pivotal in developing the New Orleans sound during the fertile rock and R&B era of the '50s and '60s. He has a more modest take.

"There were great musicians everywhere you turned," he says. "They made me look good."