October 1, 2025
7:30 pm
CDT
(6:30 pm DOORS)
Tipitina's Presents
Helena For Musicians
- Partners N Crime
- BJ So Cole
- Brass-A-Holics
- Cha Wa
- Dawn Richard
- Denisia
- Kristin Diable
- River Eckert
- Robin Barnes
- Stanton Moore
- Tonya Boyd-Cannon
- Jamal Batiste
- Evan Washington
- Jentleman Sharp
- Joshua Starkman
A Get Out The Vote + Birthday Concert
Featuring Partners N Crime, BJ So Cole, Brass-A-Holics, Cha Wa, Dawn Richard, Denisia, Kristin Diable, River Eckert, Robin Barnes, Stanton Moore, & Tonya Boyd-Cannon
House Band: Jamal Batiste, Evan Washington, Jentleman Sharp, and Joshua Starkman
House Band: Jamal Batiste, Evan Washington, Jentleman Sharp, and Joshua Starkman
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Partners N Crime
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BJ So Cole
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Brass-A-Holics
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Since 2010, the Brass-A-Holics have been taking their unique sound around the world. Steeped in the deep musical culture of New Orleans, the band brings a heavy dose of go-go funk to the New Orleans brass sound. In a blending of musical cultures stemming from cities separated by more than a thousand miles, a Brass-A-Holics live show takes the New Orleans brass band culture and infuses it with the electricity of Washington D.C.’s go-go. The resulting sound is both captivating and unique. The band consists of core New Orleans brass elements -trumpet, trombone, saxophone- and adds a full drum set, percussion, keyboard, bass and electric guitar, giving the band limitless options to explore new sonic territory. Whether performing their original music or using the framework of hit pop songs as springboards for fiery improvisations, there is something in the set to appeal to every music fan. Once the music starts, the demographics blend and a brand new experience is created – one that leaves one-of-a-kind memories that live on long after the last note. The Brass-A-Holics recently recorded a live album and mixtape at The House Of Blues in New Orleans. The most recent project is Word On The Street: The Live Video Album. |
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Cha Wa
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In 2021, Cha Wa released its third album, the Grammy-nominated My People, on Single Lock Records as the follow-up to 2018’s Grammy-nominated Spyboy. But the true history of the music goes back much further. The first documentation of Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans dates back to the late 19th century. These were African-American men who paraded on the city streets on Fat Tuesday morning and St. Joseph’s Night in celebratory groups, playing handheld percussion like glass bottles, tambourines and cowbells. They shouted and chanted in a unique dialect that scholars have tried to explain the roots of, but never quite agreed on. “Cha Wa” is a traditional Mardi Gras Indian shout from which the band took its name; so is “jock-a-mo-fee-nah-nay”, familiar to music fans from the enduring tune “Iko Iko.” Some suggest that Black Masking Indian phrases can be traced to Native American languages, which is a distinct possibility since the culture is meant to pay tribute, in song and spirit, to the Native American groups that gave shelter to fleeing slaves. My People is Cha Wa’s first project with Single Lock, the respected Muscle Shoals and New Orleans-based record label. Single Lock has been dedicated to teasing out the threads and throughlines of creative tradition in Southern music, from legendary veterans like the Blind Boys of Alabama and Donnie Fritts to young torchbearers like Cedric Burnside and St. Paul and the Broken Bones, drawing a map of South’s diverse musical identity. The sweeping palette of unmistakably New Orleans sound on My People fits beautifully into that mission. Some of the songs are deliberately, powerfully organic and raw, like the raucous closer “Shallow Water” – a traditional call and response tune that was recorded live at the storied Indian barroom Handa Wanda’s in under an hour as the first take. Others embrace sounds of more recent vintage, like the fierce, taut title track, powered by industrial-strength horns, or the playful, swirling organ on “Bow Down.” The shivering piano that introduces “Morning Glory,” punctuated by yelps and drum slaps, is a taste of Dr. John’s own Mardi Gras Indian-tinged ‘60s psychedelia; “Love in Your Heart,” is a swellingly gorgeous slice of vintage, romantic soul powered by Angelika “Jelly” Joseph’s passionate vocals. Throughout, there’s plenty of propulsive, syncopated second-line rhythm, joyful shouts and Indian swagger – it’s an album as unstoppable, alive, and multi-voiced as a parade moving through the streets. The clattering, hollering song of Mardi Gras Indians on the move is primal and powerful. There’s a feeling that you’re somehow witnessing a deeper, stronger spirit breaking through the structures that govern city life, and the only thing more arresting than the sound is the sight of it: the Indians wear towering, elaborate suits that require months’ worth of work, topped with billowing ostrich plumes in riotous colors and festooned with painstakingly hand-beaded patches and panels that glitter in the sun or under streetlights: Some of the beadwork art might be Native American or African imagery, in homage to the culture’s roots, and some might depict images from an Indian’s own community, or personal life. The Mardi Gras Indian sound had crept into broader culture already in pop and R&B form with 1950s and ‘60s hits like “Iko Iko.” The first time the greater public really got a at look at what Indians were about, though, was on the covers of two funky 1970s releases from the Wild Magnolias, which featured Monk Boudreaux: the first a close-up of a beaded and bejeweled patch, the second featuring the band fully suited up, blazing with color like a gang of extraordinary birds. These albums, which melded the traditional percussion and chants with slick, gritty and electric New Orleans funk, began a new chapter in the Indian tradition. Cha Wa bears that torch today, and also expands its horizons: the music on My People is a collage of multiple New Orleans sounds, from second-line brass to hip-hop to smooth soul music. That is, after all, how Southern stories get told – passed down through the years, acknowledging history as each generation adds its own part of the tale. Bandleader and drummer Joe Gelini was first captured by the sound of ‘70s New Orleans funk, the Meters and the Neville Brothers, in high school. “My mind was blown by that New Orleans style of drumming, all those incredible rhythms,” he said. Later, as a student at the Berklee College of Music, he had the chance to take a lesson from the great New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad. “And I had this moment of clarity – he said, all these rhythms we’re playing are based on Mardi Gras Indians.” After graduating, Gelini moved to New Orleans and made himself a student of the sound. He was such an apt one that he quickly began playing with Monk, soaking in the rhythm and the culture both onstage and at more informal neighborhood practices, as well as out in the streets. “I felt like such a guest of the culture, and I also felt like family,” he said. New Orleans culture exists uniquely in time. It treats its musical history with reverence: origins a century old, or more, are always audible in the sounds that define it, from jazz to brass-band to Indian music. Yet it constantly welcomes new growth, too – funk and hip-hop and contemporary R&B meld easily with all of its venerated sonic traditions, keeping the city’s singular culture vital, vivid and honest. My People is the latest in the catalog of a young band that has always typified this essential part of the character of America’s most interesting musical city. It sounds like New Orleans today. “We try to take the influence of Monk and Bo and Willie Tee [from the original Wild Magnolias] back in the day, when they were interpreting the music of their time – the deep funk, disco, Afrobeat and tinges of reggae,” said Gelini. “And we’re also trying to interpret and write new music that we’re inspired to play that’s relevant to our generation, and our current social environment.” With regard to the latter, a chilling cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” fronted by guest Alvin “Youngblood” Hart and textured by its African-influenced arrangement, stands out as a timely statement of protest. But at its core, the Mardi Gras Indian tradition itself is as much a defiant one as it is a celebratory one. For Black people, like the first Indians, to take to the streets in a display of beauty and power was dangerous a hundred years ago; it still is, of course, today. To take joy in their own loud voices and physical glory – crowned in feathers and jewels - is its own certain kind of protest. My People feels like pure joy, a distillation of generations of New Orleans expression, but it also never fails to remind us how hard-won that joy was and still is: not least in the tense, funky and explosive title track, with its declaration “My people, we’re still here.” “Mardi Gras Indian songs are inherently songs about freedom,” Joe Gelini said. “And that struggle is as relevant today as it’s ever been.” |
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Dawn Richard
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| As a founding member of Danity Kane, Dawn Richard has explored the ins and outs of commercial pop music. As a solo artist, over the span of six critically acclaimed Dawn Richard full-length albums, she treats Louisiana Creole culture, New Orleans bounce, and Southern Swag as elemental, allowing her to weave in and out of house, footwork, R&B, and more. As she proudly proclaimed on her 2021 album Second Line: “I am the genre.” On her two most recent albums, Quiet in a World Full of Noise and Pigments, collaborations with multi-instrumentalist and producer Spencer Zahn, she and Zahn meld an orchestral fusion of neoclassical, ambient, and jazz, both albums receiving a multitude of critical accolades which brought them to perform at the London Jazz Festival in two successive years. Dawn is currently working on her next Dawn Richard full length album, scheduled to be released in 2026. | |
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Denisia
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Kristin Diable
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River Eckert
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River Eckert (b. Oct. 9, 2009) is a 14 year old piano player born and raised in New Orleans, LA. From a very young age, River has been surrounded by music. Immersed in the styles of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino, Art Neville among others, River is passionate and dedicated to “carrying the torch” of the New Orleans Piano tradition. Coming from a musical family, River started playing piano at the age of 3 years old. He began studying classical music and his teachers urged him to start playing blues and jazz based on his natural ability to quickly grasp those styles. Now at the young age of 14, he sings and plays both in a solo piano and full band setting. He is quickly gaining local and national popularity. River recently began recording his first studio album, he is joined by George Porter Jr.,Terence Higgins and John Fohl in the rhythm section and it is expected to be released in early 2025. Recently, he was also a featured artist on three upcoming “Playing for Change” video recordings. River has been fortunate enough to have performed with George Porter Jr., Stanton Moore, Luther Dickinson, Terence Higgins, Roger Lewis, Fred Wesley, Kirk Joseph, Donald Harrison Jr., David Torkanowsky, Brad Walker, and many others. He has had the honor of performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Tipitina’s, Maple Leaf Bar, Chickie Wah Wah, French Quarter Festival, NOLA Funk Fest, Oak St. PoBoy Festival, WWL Morning Show, WWOZ Radio, and Fox 8 News… |
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Robin Barnes
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Stanton Moore
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Stanton Moore is a GRAMMY award-winning drummer, educator and performer born and raised in New Orleans. He is especially connected to his hometown city, its culture and collaborative spirit. In the early ‘90s, Moore helped found the New Orleans-based essential funk band Galactic who continue to amass a worldwide audience via recording and touring globally. The band has averaged 100 shows a year for the last 25 years. |
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Tonya Boyd-Cannon
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Jamal Batiste
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New Orleans' Jamal Batiste is a renowned music master playing percussion-charged rock, jazz, funk, soul, gospel, hip hop and RnB around the world. He has performed in nearly every corner of North America, as well as in the Caribbean, South Africa, Morocco, Japan, Ireland, Scotland, France, Austria, and England. He writes, record and perform on the Jam-All Pro. Music Group independent record label. “I enjoy the passion, love, creativity, motivation, excitement, energy, enlightenment, and peace of music,” writes Jamal Batiste of his love of sound. “Music is one of God's greatest gifts to this earth. I can use it to help and heal people – and it's fun to create, compose, arrange, record, produce, and perform.” Jamal Batiste released two official singles in 2017 leading up to his most recent LP collaboration, “A Beautiful World,” which didn't stop climbing charts until it hit No. 1 on Billboard Jazz and on Heatseekers. Other popular full-length releases include “T.U.D. Just Jamal” (2010), “David Batiste & The Gladiators: New Orleans Is Coming Back”, “Jamal Batiste The Unorthodox Drummer: The First Assemblage” (2008), EP “All Rock’d Up” (2017), and “Beatz N’ Vibez Vol. 1 (2023). Jamal Batiste has performed in cinema (“Get On Up,” the James Brown story starring Chadwick Boseman, 2014) and has received awards and accolades from the New Orleans City Council and the mayor of New Orleans, as well as from President Barack Obama (Lifetime Achievement Award). He has been working with students (youth and young adults) as an instructor for NOSACONN at Batiste Cultural Arts Academy & Smothers Academy, for How Big Is Your Dream Academy, and A Star Is Born Performance Camp at the historic Carver Theater. The Jamal Batiste Band has performed at “the world’s largest trade-only event for the music products industry” (NAMM in Anaheim, CA) and with Grammy Award Winning musicians such as Leo Nocentelli, Art Neville and George Porter (The Meters), Regina Belle, After 7, and Bill Summers (Herbie Hancock)and that's just to name a few, the list goes on and on. Jamal has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CBS Nightly News and USA Today. Also to include several local news stations, newspapers and magazines as well. When Jamal isn't making an in person appearance one can still catch his extraordinary drumming talents in Disney's very first African American princess movie entitled "Princess and the Frog" he also played acoustic guitar in Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger TV series, and spoke at the 2014 Cutting Edge Music Conference about the audition process for his role in “Get On Up.” Then he was invited to be the musical director for a tribute band called The Gladiators, congratulating his father David Batiste, Sr. receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Best Of The Beat Award Show 2023. Jamal Batiste writes to fans, “Just want to thank you for your prayers, love and support on my continuous journey in music and in life. Thank you for continuing to share my music with everyone you know. It is my goal to motivate, inspire and impact people to fight for a positive outlook despite of one's circumstances. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you! Let's continue to build together and share a genuine positive atmosphere, quality sound and high energy! God bless you and your family. Peace!” |
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Evan Washington
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Jentleman Sharp
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Joshua Starkman
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