The Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian Funk Band at Three Keys

Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias gang invoke the ancestors with their brand new kind of funk.

Though more a ceremonial group than a performing or touring band, the New Orleans Mardi Gras “Indian Tribe” The Wild Magnolias issued a critically acclaimed LP for Polydor in 1974. Bo Dollis, Monk Boudreaux, June Johnson, Jr., Crip Adams, Tobias Johnson, Bubba Scott, and James Smothers brought the rich, fervent flavor of New Orleans to vinyl, backed by Willie Tee’s band. The LP wasn’t a huge seller, but it attracted so much media interest that they appeared at Carnegie Hall that year, as well as the Capitol Center in Washington D.C.

Today, the late Big Chief Bo Dollis Sr’s wife Big Queen Rita and son Bo Dollis Jr. carry the torch for the tribe and for the band. Now the Wild Magnolias Big Chief, Bo Dollis Jr., serves as bandleader, weaving modern funk into the band’s contemporary repertoire while simultaneously preserving and presenting the generations deep music, traditions and rituals of his father’s band.

RSVP here.