Cha Wa is a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-nominated Mardi Gras Indian funk band based out of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana. The name Cha Wa is a slang phrase used by Mardi Gras Indian tribes, meaning "we're comin' for ya" or "here we come." Frontman Honey Bannister is known for dressing in traditional Mardi Gras Indian clothing during performances, including intricately designed headdresses. Cha Wa has released three albums, ''Funk n Feathers'' in 2016, ''Spyboy'' in 2018, and ''My People'' in 2021. In 2018, ''Spyboy'' received critical acclaim and was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the

Best Regional Roots Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 as the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the regionally based traditional Ameri ...

category, and ''My People'' received a nomination in the same category in 2021. Cha Wa was nominated in several categories at the 2019 '' OffBeat'' Best of the Beat Awards, and in 2021, the band took home an awardfor Best Music Video at Offbeat's Best of the Beat Awards for Visible Means of Support (No Justice, No Peace Remix), filmed by Jonathan Isaac Jackson.

About

Cha Wa was formed in 2014 by bandleader and drummer, Joe Gelini. Gelini first heard of Mardi Gras Indians while he was attending the

Berklee School of Music Berklee College of Music () is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. During his time in Boston, he went to see a performance by

Idris Muhammad Idris Muhammad (; born Leo Morris; November 13, 1939 – July 29, 2014) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He had an extensive career performing jazz, funk, Rhythm and blues, R&B, and Soul music, soul music and recorded with musicians s ...

, a New Orleans-born jazz drummer. Muhammed was performing in traditional Mardi Gras style, which piqued Gelini's interest. Muhammed later gave Gelini a lesson in Mardi Gras style which pushed Gelini to move to New Orleans after graduation. Gelini quickly became involved with the Mardi Gras Indian community in New Orleans. He began attending practice rehearsals for Mardi Gras marches. It was at these practices that he met Monk Boudreaux, the grandfather and father (respectively) of J'wan and Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Cha Wa's future frontmen. Monk Boudreaux is also known as Big Chief of the Golden Eagles and one of the most widely known Mardi Gras Indian singers. Gelini's practices alongside Monk Boudreaux quickly turned into performances with him. Gelini met Monk's grandson J'Wan Boudreaux while Boudreaux was still attending high school. Soon after, J'wan joined Cha Wa's lineup as the lead vocalist and frontman. Boudreaux is the Spyboy of his Mardi Gras Indian tribe, a respected position that entails warning the Chief of approaching rival tribes during parade processions. The band aptly named their second album ''Spyboy''. In 2019, Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Monk's son and Second Chief of the Golden Eagles tribe, replaced his nephew J'wan as the band's lead vocalist and frontman for a short period, before leaving Cha Wa along with Aurelien Barnes, Joseph Maize, Ari Teitel, Andriu Yanovski, TJ Norris and Stephen J. Gladney. The departed members formed The Rumble ft. Chief Joseph Boudreaux, earning their own GRAMMY nomination in 2023. In early 2022,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

show Bluegrass Underground featured a Cha Wa performance from

Cumberland Caverns Cumberland Caverns is a national natural landmark and show cave located in McMinnville, Tennessee. It is the third longest cave in Tennessee and the 24th longest cave in the United States. History The caverns' main entrance was discovered by Aa ...

. Later that year, the band's song Ooh Na Nay was featured in the New Orleans-focused feature film "Causeway" starring

Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress and producer. She is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The List of high ...

. A month later, the band recorded a live EP at Brooklyn Bowl in New York, which was released in mid 2023.

Releases

''Funk 'n' Feathers''

Cha Wa's first album Funk 'n' Feathers was released worldwide in April 2016 on the band's own UPT Music label. The 10 song record combines a mix of original tunes with several covers of New Orleans funk classics.

''Spyboy''

Cha Wa's Grammy-nominated album, ''Spyboy'', is deeply influenced by New Orleans street culture. The band aimed to give traditional New Orleans music a modern twist. In Gelini's words, "We wanted to take the roots of what we love about New Orleans brass band music and Mardi Gras Indian music and then voice it in our own way". ''Spyboy'' was produced by

Galactic Galactic is an American funk band from New Orleans, Louisiana. Origins and background Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a ...

's Ben Ellman and features special guests Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (The Wild Magnolias, HBO's '' Treme'') and Nigel Hall (

Lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae mostly grown as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are most often used raw in Green salad, green salads, although lettuce is also seen in other kinds of food, such as sandwiche ...

, Nth Power, and Danica Hart). On the collaborative nature of the record, former frontman J'wan Boudreaux said "Everyone put their minds together to make this music. Everyone had input on at least one song". The track "Chapters" was written by J'wan Boudreaux and explores the struggles he faced being raised in a single parent household. "J'Wans Story" gives Boudreaux a chance to explain how and why Mardi Gras Indian culture developed. Gelini and Monk Boudreaux teamed up to write "Visible Means of Support". The song chronicles Monk Boudreaux's experience with "vagrancy" laws in the city that primarily affected African-American men.

Wildman

On September 26, 2019, the band released "Wildman" as a single, written by former guitarist/musical director Ari Teitel and former lead vocalist J'Wan Boudreaux. It was described as "an old-school, funk-driven tribute to the most hot-blooded Mardi Gras Indian Tribal member, who intimidates and 'opens up a hole' in the crowd of people for the Big Chief to emerge on Mardi Gras Morning. This song evokes the infectious energy of the Wildman which you can feel on the streets on Mardi Gras Day."

Visible Means of Support (No Justice, No Peace Remix)

On September 3, 2020, Cha Wa released a remixed version of their previously released "Visible Means of Support" "along with a video chronicling the ongoing struggle of the Black community and the rise of

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

". The video won an Offbeat Magazine Best of the Beat Award for 2020's Music Video of the Year.

''My People''

The band's follow up album to their Grammy-nominated ''Spyboy'' is entitled ''My People'' and was released on April 2, 2021 on Single Lock Records. Andrew Block engineered and co-produced the record with Teitel. The band has garnered significant press surrounding the release, including an appearance on

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

Jazz FM (UK) Jazz FM is a Radio in the United Kingdom, British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. It broadcasts across the digital radio in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom and Malta predominantly playing jazz music, jazz s ...

, and

BBC 6 BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

. The album was again nominated for a Grammy in the Regional Roots Album category.

Touring and performances

In early 2019, Cha Wa performed at GlobalFest. In a review of the festival, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' explained Cha Wa's performance as "a portable Mardi Gras dance party". That spring, the band played several shows at

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, including GlobalFest's official showcase at Palm Door on Sixth and the Brooklyn Bowl Family Reunion at the Historic Scoot Inn. A few weeks later, the group was featured at a celebration of 50 years of New Orleans music and culture by '' Relix Magazine'' at the

New Orleans Jazz Museum The New Orleans Jazz Museum is a music museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, U.S., dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of jazz music. Originally a separate museum, the collection is now affiliated with the Louisiana St ...

. Summer 2019 saw Cha Wa play several large music festivals including the 29th annual

High Sierra Music Festival High Sierra Music Festival is a multi-day music festival held in Quincy, California, United States, a mountainous area about 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. History The first High Sierra Music Festival was in 1991 at Bear Valley in Alpine ...

Montreal International Jazz Festival The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 ar ...

, and the

Philadelphia Folk Festival The Philadelphia Folk Festival is a folk music festival held annually at Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The four-night, three-day festival is produced and run by the non-profit Philadelphia Folkson ...

among many others.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

featured Cha Wa on their national broadcast on December 16, 2019 playing the

MNF theme and one of Cha Wa's own songs. A few months later (September 13, 2020), Cha Wa's hometown team, the

Saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

, featured them on their official pregame show with a live performance of Cha Wa's original song "Saints Go Get 'Em". Lincoln featured a unique Cha Wa performance of an unreleased song at the Hotel Peter and Paul for their "Chart Your Course" Campaign with Cas Haley. The band appeared for a performance and interview on

the week of Mardi Gras 2021.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Musical groups established in 2014 Musical groups from New Orleans American funk musical groups 2014 establishments in Louisiana