The Wild Magnolias play Wednesdays on the Point at the Algiers Ferry Landing tonight at 6 with the Pinettes Brass Band also on the bill. Here are the Magnolias with their dramatic stage entrance including Bo Dollis’ welcome to the stage. Recently, Dollis was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, but because of his health—hinted [...]
Tag Archives: Bo Dollis
Bo Dollis Awarded 2011 NEA National Heritage Fellowship
June 23, 2011 – 9:30 pm
Today, Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. He is joined by Texas quilter Laverne Brackens, Arizona folklorist Jim Griffith, California Taiko drum leaders Roy and PJ Hirabayashi, Hawaiian ukulele and slack key guitarist Ledward Kaapana, Virginia Old Regular Baptist [...]
The Wild Magnolias and a Magic Handa Wanda
May 1, 2011 – 12:11 am
New Orleans is one of the musical catalysts of the planet. In the almost three centuries that history has recorded at this crescent in the Mississippi River, events have occurred that have changed the sound of music in our world. Louis Moreau Gottschalk took Cuban and Congo Square rhythms and melodies and adapted them to [...]
A Great Mardi Gras
March 9, 2011 – 5:01 pm
Had a great Mardi Gras! I’ve done Frenchmen Street, Bourbon Street, Canal Street, St. Charles Avenue, even Metairie. But I like our house the best. We’re smack-dab in the middle of St. Charles Avenue and Dryades Street, so we get the best of all worlds on Mardi Gras day: Zulu, Rex, the truck parades and [...]
Galactic, Ya-Ka-May (Anti- Records)
February 1, 2010 – 12:37 am
When Galactic parted ways with Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet, there was a lot of concern about what the band would become without a front man. Would it jam on Blue Note-like jazz-funk riffs until that well was dry? As From the Corner to the Block and the new Ya-Ka- May suggest, those concerns were right and [...]
Needy Musicians Benefit From Mayfield Event
December 18, 2009 – 2:30 pm
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Irvin Mayfield put together a benefit for “local musicians in need.” That event’s proceeds were distributed to their beneficiaries at an event at Ashé Arts Cultural Center last night, and the musicians’ response was heartwarming. Harmonica player J.D. Hill, who now lives in the Musicians’ Village, was severely beaten and [...]
Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music: Bo Dollis
January 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
Theodore Emile “Bo” Dollis was born on January 14, 1944 with an extraordinary gift that eventually made him a sacred figure in New Orleans and a fabulous symbol of the city’s unique culture everywhere else. Dollis had a voice that set him apart. He had a native ability to sing that was apparent from early [...]
Bars Fill with Mardi Gras Indians; Legendary Drummer Smokey Johnson Saluted
February 1, 1994 – 12:01 am
Happy Mardi Gras, everybody! The nation’s greatest free party will be in full swing as this issue of OffBeat hits the streets, with plenty of music and merriment for all. And there’s still time to enjoy a couple of rounds of Wild Indian practice before Fat Tuesday brings our beautiful warriors out into the open, [...]
They Call Us Wild: The Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans
July 1, 1988 – 12:01 am
“There is never a dull moment in the street where the Zulus & the Indians & the Baby Dolls live & play. in the streets where every night is Saturday night…” -Robert Tallent, Gumbo Ya-Ya (1946) Urban American culture begins and ends in the street, where wave after wave of ethnic immigrants [...]
