Cha Wa

New Orleans brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. “My People,” the band’s follow up to their Grammy-nominated album “Spyboy,” feels like pure joy, a distillation of generations of New Orleans expression. But it also never fails to remind us how hard-won that joy was and still is: not least in the tense, funky and explosive title track, with its declaration “My people, we’re still here.”

“Mardi Gras Indian songs are inherently songs about freedom,” the band’s drummer Joe Gelini says. “And that struggle is as relevant today as it’s ever been.” Popmatters describes the band as “a grand gumbo of singing, intoxicating rhythms, and deep funk grooves that are impossible to resist.”

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“I’ve seen the future of New Orleans music and its name is Cha Wa.” – Paste
“Powerful, relatable, vibrant.” – NPR All Things Considered

“Cha Wa, with bass lines played on sousaphone plus trumpet and two trombones, bring the city’s brass band tradition to bear. Add sick jazz-funk guitar, and…full-beaded holiday regalia, and the result was a portable Mardi Gras Dance Party!” – Rolling Stone

“Cha Wa blends Mardi Gras Indian tradition and modern pop magic.” – No Depression