Cha Wa

Concert Details

New Orleans brass band–meets–Mardi Gras Indian outfit Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. In 2021, Cha Wa released its third album, the Grammy-nominated My People, as the follow-up to 2018’s Grammy-nominated Spyboy. The album is at once a joyful distillation of generations of New Orleans expression and a reminder of how hard-won that joy was and still is.

Dating back to the late 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian tradition began when African American men first marched in Native American dress through the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras. The tradition has been kept alive for over a century and today remains as vital as ever. Mardi Gras Indians have influenced the biggest names in New Orleans music: the Meters, Dr. John, the Marsalis family, the Neville Brothers, Trombone Shorty, and others.

In 2023, the band released an EP, Live at Brooklyn Bowl.