“Dave was one of rock ’n’ roll’s first great producers,” Dr. Padnos said. “And he created what might have been the first rock ’n’ roll record with ‘The Fat Man,’ ” a hit for Mr. Domino in 1949. “There was nothing else like it at the time. He put a heavy backbeat behind an old blues tune, and it became rock ’n’ roll.”
That “big beat,” as it came to be known, was supplied by the drummer Earl Palmer, one of several unerringly funky musicians whom Mr. Bartholomew recruited to work in his band. (Others included the saxophonists Lee Allen and Alvin (Red) Tyler.)
Besides appearing on his sessions, this tight ensemble played on Little Richard’s volcanic mid-50s hits “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally.” It also backed Sam Cooke, with a young Allen Toussaint on piano, during his 1960 tour of the United States.
Fusing Mardi Gras parade rhythms, jump blues, big-band jazz and Tin Pan Alley pop, Mr. Bartholomew and his band created a Crescent City groove that became as enduring a part of rock ’n’ roll vernacular as Bo Diddley’s “shave-and-a-haircut” beat and Mr. Berry’s “ringin’ a bell” guitar.
No less remarkable was the fact that Mr. Bartholomew, a black man, achieved such prominence working in the Jim Crow South. “He was operating in a very segregated environment,” John Broven, the author of “Rhythm & Blues in New Orleans,” said in an interview. “You had to be somebody special to rise to the top.”
Mr. Bartholomew, left, shakes hands with Fats Domino in 1999 at the 50th anniversary observance of Mr. Domino’s first recording session in New Orleans.Jennifer Zdon/The Times-Picayune, via Associated Press
 

Dave Bartholomew was born on Dec. 24, 1918, in Edgard, La. (Some sources say the year was 1920, but the family said 1918 is correct.) The son of a jazz trumpet player, he grew up in a musical home and learned to play the tuba before moving on to trumpet.
He earned the nickname Leather Lungs for his ability to hold a note, and by the time he was a teenager he had spent time in a number of the region’s most popular bands, including those led by Joe Robicheaux and Papa Celestin. He later worked briefly with Jimmie Lunceford’s big band, and with a military band while serving in the Army, where he began writing and arranging music.
After serving in World War II he formed his own group, which appeared in New Orleans night spots like the Club Tijuana and the Dew Drop Inn, before meeting the record mogul Lew Chudd, who signed Mr. Bartholomew to his label, Imperial.
Mr. Bartholomew was working for the label as a talent scout when he first heard Mr. Domino perform, at the Hideaway Club in New Orleans. “The Fat Man,” the first single the two men made together, became a national hit and offered early proof of Mr. Bartholomew’s astute mix of commercial and artistic instincts.
“He was smart enough to know you couldn’t get a song named ‘Junker Blues’ played on the radio,” Dr. Padnos explained, referring to the drug-themed song on which “The Fat Man” was based, “so he came up with ‘The Fat Man’ instead. With Fats he wrote stuff that was accessible enough that the kids would buy it.”
Mr. Bartholomew in an undated photo.Proper Records
 

The genial, steady-rolling arrangements Mr. Bartholomew wrote for Mr. Domino all but ensured the mainstream appeal of his music. The records Mr. Bartholomew released under his own name had more of a Caribbean or Afro-Cuban feel than his collaborations with Mr. Domino and the other youth-oriented performers whose sessions he produced. With titles like “Shrimp and Gumbo” and “Carnival Day,” these recordings were evocative of local New Orleans culture.
A broad cross section of Mr. Bartholomew’s music, including his work with renowned blues musicians like T-Bone Walker and Roy Brown, was presented in “The Spirit of New Orleans: The Genius of Dave Bartholomew,” a two-CD set released by Capitol Records in 1993.
Mr. Bartholomew’s name was linked to steadily fewer hit records as the 1960s gave way to the ’70s, but he remained active into his 80s. His 1998 studio album, “New Orleans Big Beat” (Landslide), featured “Jazz Fest in New Orleans,” which became the unofficial anthem of the city’s annual Jazz and Heritage Festival.
He was given a Trustees Award, for lifetime achievement, by the Recording Academy in 2014.
Survivors include his wife, Rhea (Douse) Bartholomew; his daughters, Diane Wilson and Jacqueline Temple; his sons, Dave Jr., Don and Ron; three stepchildren, Alvin LaBeaud, Darrell LaBeaud and Deborah Hubbard; a sister, Thelma Cooper; 25 grandchildren; and many great-grandchildren.
Mr. Bartholomew’s compositions have been included on the soundtracks of music-themed movies like “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956) and “American Graffiti” (1973). A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
That he was inducted in the “nonperformer” category was appropriate but perhaps misleading, Mr. Broven said. In addition to being “the one who organized all the musicians and whipped everyone into shape in the studio,” he noted, “he was a great musician himself, a red-hot trumpeter.”