Cha Wa is a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

-nominated

Mardi Gras Indian Mardi Gras Indians (also known as Black Masking Indians) are black carnival revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, who dress up for Mardi Gras in suits influenced by Native American ceremonial apparel. Collectively, their organizations are calle ...

funk band based out of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

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 Americ ...

category, and ''My People'' received a nomination in the same category in 2021.https://www.grammy.com/artists/cha-wa/243635 Cha Wa was nominated in several categories at the 2019 '' OffBeat'' Best of the Beat Awards, and in 2021, the band took home an award for 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 cou ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

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

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

, 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 Monk Boudreaux (born Joseph Pierre Boudreaux; 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States) is an African-American musician and Big Chief of the Golden Eagles, a Mardi Gras Indian tribe. He is widely known for his long-time collaboration with ...

, 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 period of time, until 2022 when J'wan briefly rejoined the group. following the release of their album "My People," members Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Aurelien Barnes, Joseph Maize, Ari Teitel, Andriu Yanovski, TJ Norris and Stephen J. Gladney left the band for undisclosed reasons and started their own band, The Rumble Ft. Joseph Boudreaux Jr. and immediately began a residency at the legendary Maple Leaf Bar leading up to Mardi Gras.

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 jam 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. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of foo ...

, 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, which 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 (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brut ...

". 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 Single Lock Records is an American record label based in Florence, Alabama. It was founded by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes), John Paul White and Will Trapp in 2013 to release music from The Shoals region of Alabama, but has since expanded its reac ...

. 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 morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

Jazz FM (UK) Jazz FM is a radio station broadcasting on digital radio in the United Kingdom and Malta which predominantly plays jazz music, jazz standards as well as blues and soul music. The station, in this incarnation set up by Richard Wheatley, traces i ...

, and

BBC 6 BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

. 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. It was first known for its co ...

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

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

, including GlobalFest's official showcase at Palm Door on Sixth and the

Brooklyn Bowl Brooklyn Bowl is a music venue, bowling alley and restaurant in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2009, it is located in the former Hecla Iron Works Building at 61 Wythe Avenue. It is known for its high-tech green co ...

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 ''Relix'', originally and occasionally later ''Dead Relix'', is a magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music. The magazine was launched in 1974 as a handmade newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concert ...

'' at the

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

. 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, and was the genesis of ...

Montreal International Jazz Festival The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) 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 fes ...

, 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, which is produced and run by the non-profit Philadelphia Fol ...

among many others.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

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 religious 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 Catholic, Eastern 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