When New Orleanians wake up on Mardi Gras morning, many of them race out to try to find the Mardi Gras Indians because, for many people, especially since Katrina, the Indians have come to represent the spirit and the resilience of the people of New Orleans.
Each of the Indian tribes has its own colors, its own traditions, its own songs, but all of them sing this one song, and its the first song, the opening prayer, on Mardi Gras morning. There are many, many versions, but I'm choosing one of my favorite versions, because it's the one in which the baby Neville Brothers got their musical beginnings.
Indian Red The Wild Tchoupitoulas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayr-Sp944J0More about Mardi Gras Indians
from
https://www.wheretraveler.com/new-orleans/play/mardi-gras-indians-new-orleans-fine-feathered-friends#:~:text=Hou%20tendais...%E2%80%9D%20The,Native%20American%20and%20African%20languages.
The language of the Mardi Gras Indians is the most elusive and mysterious aspect of the culture. Made up of English and French as well as invented words, the speaking and singing of the Indians is a form of verbal art that resists precise translation but is widely understood by Indians. In many Indian songs, “hoo na nae” is synonymous with the phrase “let’s go get ‘em,” while the meaning of the frequently heard refrain “tuway pockyway” is entirely dependent on the context.
The songs of the Mardi Gras Indians are the most popular and accessible aspect of the culture. At Indian gatherings, songs are arranged in call-and-response fashion, with the chief improvising a solo vocal and the tribe responding with a repeated chant: “shallow water oh mama!” “big chief got a golden crown!” A “second line” (an informal parade) of percussionists accompanies the chants with tambourines, cowbells, and found objects such as beer bottles.
Popular chants have also become the basis for rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and hip-hop recordings, including James “Sugarboy” Crawford’s 1954 rhythm and blues recording of “Jock-A-Mo.” Renamed “Iko Iko,” the song became a national hit eleven years later, performed by the Dixie Cups. The music and spectacle of the Indians has also spawned tribute songs, such as Earl King’s “Big Chief,” popularized by pianist Professor Longhair in a 1964 recording.
In 1971, Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias were the first Indians to make a commercial recording of their own music, using a group of funk musicians to arrange Dollis’s “Handa Wanda.” Under the musical direction of pianist, composer, and arranger Wilson Turbinton (“Willie Tee”), the Wild Magnolias recorded two LPs in the early 1970s and toured the United States and France. Indian funk was given a sizable boost in 1976 when the Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe recorded an album, titled Wild Tchoupitoulas, with arrangements by the city’s most acclaimed funk group, The Meters.
On the record and in performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, lead vocalist Joseph Landry (“Chief Jolly”) was accompanied by his nephews, the Neville Brothers. Like Willie Tee, the Nevilles—Art, Charles, Aaron, and Cyril Neville—grew up listening to the Indians on Mardi Gras Day. Music composed for these recordings, such as the Magnolias’ “New Suit” in 1975 and the Tchoupitoulas’ “Meet De Boys on the Battlefront,” released the next year, now stand alongside “Big Chief” and “Iko, Iko” as the most prominent and durable signs of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition.
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