Mardi Gras Indians

The Wild Tchoupitoulas

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The Wild Tchoupitoulas were originally a group of Mardi Gras Indians formed in the early 1970's by George Landry. With help from local New Orleans musicians The Meters, The Wild Tchoupitoulas recorded an eponymous album, which featured the "call-and-response" style chants typical of Mardi Gras Indians. Vocals were provided by Landry, as "Big Chief Jolly", as well as other members of his Mardi Gras tribe. Instrumentation was provided in part by members of the Meters. The album also notably featured Landry's nephews, the Neville Brothers, providing harmonies and some of the instrumentation. While not a financial success, the effort was well received critically and the experience recording it encouraged the four Neville brothers to perform together for the first time as a group. The album was produced by famed New Orleans writer/musician and record producer Allen Toussaint.

Wild Magnolias

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Theodore Emile "Bo" Dollis was born in New Orleans in 1944. His father was from Baton Rouge, and his mother came from a French-speaking Creole family in St. Martinville, Louisiana. Bo grew up in the central city, an old, run-down commercial-residential uptown neighborhood behind the grand St. Charles Avenue mansions. He was first attracted to the African-Caribbean-American tradition of Carnival Indians while still a youngster.

Bo's career as a performer and his development as one of the classic singers in the history of the New Orleans recording began when, as a junior in high school, he secretly started attending Sunday night Indian "practice" in a friend's back yard. He followed The White Eagles tribe, playing and singing the traditional repertoire. In 1957 he masked for the first time with The Golden Arrows, not telling his family of his involvement with the Indians. He made his suit at someone else's house and told his folks he was going to a parade. Hours later his father discovered him, having recognized his son in the street, underneath a crown of feathers.

Bo Dollis' name is virtually synonymous with the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian Tribe. He is clearly the most popular Indian Chief (chosen in 1964) in New Orleans, with everybody wanting to see him in his hand-crafted suit on Mardi Gras or St. Joseph's Day. Bo has been a legend almost from the beginning, because he could improvise well and sing with a voice as sweet as Sam Cookie, but rough and streetwise, with an edge that comes from barroom jam sessions and leading hundreds of second-lining dancers through the streets at Carnival time.

In 1975, Dollis and Monk Boudreaux, Chief of the Golden Eagles, recorded James "Sugarboy" Crawford's 1954 R&B hit "Jackomo, Jackomo." There is contrast in their vocal phrasing, and each swings the story line at a slightly different pace; nonetheless, the unity of spirit shines through. You can hear the closeness of these two childhood friends, the only two professional Chiefs performing in New Orleans. In 1970, they appeared at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Shortly afterwards, they collaborated on the classic Mardi Gras song "Handa Wanda." Seldom do they sing together in practice.

The Wild Magnolias and The Golden Eagles have taken Bo Dollis and Monk Boudreaux from the ghettos and brought them to places like Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC, London, Nice and Berlin. Where ever they go, listeners will hear an authentic music to which New Orleans owes so much.

Wild Mohicans Mardi Gras Indian Tribe

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Big Chief Kentrell Watson writes, "It was started in 1996, when I left the Golden Arrows.  I was running flagboy.  I had a few guys telling me if I ran my own tribe, they would come with me. I began the Wild Mohican Indian Tribe.  I had six guys - my two spyboys, two flagboys, and my two gang flags.  We had sewing meetings every week at my home.  We sat around and talked about what colors we were wearing and how many pounds of plumes we needed.  I showed my guys how to sew patches and broaches; also how to hook up their crowns.  My gang hit the streets every year after that.  Everything we do, we do together.  The Wild Mohicans is a family tribe.  We stuck like glue.  My two older boys ran for three years by their selves, with me by their side every step.  Today the gang is bigger - I have my first spy, second spy, flagboy, second flagboy, chief scout, trail chief, council chief, second chief, baby queen, second queen, first queen and my big queen.  I am the big chief.  We hit the streets after the last float of the Zulu parade.  We will hit the streets for many more."