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Joe Gelini
First time I came to New Orleans
was in January of 1996.
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Unknown
I came down here with my dad.
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Unknown
They used to have a convention down here
called the NATPE convention.
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Unknown
I was there, I was on the floor with him
and he was doing business.
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Unknown
And out of the corner of my eye,
I spotted Quincy Jones,
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Unknown
and I went up to him
very politely and said,
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Unknown
Mr. Jones, I'm a huge fan.
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Unknown
I'm going to Berklee
College of Music right now.
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Unknown
I know you were one of the first people
to study at Berkelee, and I just wanted to
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Unknown
ask you if you had any advice
for an aspiring musician.
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And he looked at me.
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Unknown
He looked at my name tag.
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Unknown
I had one of those, you know,
like convention center name tags.
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Unknown
And he said, well,
Joseph, that's a good question.
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He said,
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Unknown
he looked at me and said, yeah, get good.
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Unknown
New Orleans Percussionist
Joe Gelini talks Quincy Jones,
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Unknown
James Brown and Mardi Gras Indian
funk in soul country #15.
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Good Gawd! [horse whinny]
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Unknown
And now a word from our sponsor
visit down at Cetera
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Unknown
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Unknown
It's Ric Stewart back in Soul Country
with episode #15.
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Unknown
I'm here with Joe Gelini, drummer
from and musician extraordinaire.
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Unknown
So we're going to talk a little bit
about some soul and funk.
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Yeah, thanks for having me.
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I don't know.
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It was a great environment.
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Unknown
We listened to a lot of music in my house
growing up.
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Unknown
My dad and mom were both big music fans.
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Unknown
You know,
my dad used to go see Jimi Hendrix,
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Unknown
and he's everyone from Jimi
Hendrix to Louis Armstrong.
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Unknown
He had a really, you know, wide
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palette of musical taste,
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Unknown
which really influenced me because I love
a lot of different styles of music.
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Unknown
I like writing
a lot of different styles of music, and
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Unknown
my dad was a big New Orleans head,
and he would travel to New Orleans
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Unknown
a lot for business, and he would always
bring back music like Astral Project
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Unknown
and The Neville Brothers
and The Meters and Doctor John and just,
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you know, you name it.
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It was really, really inspiring.
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When I was 15-16
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Unknown
I loved John Bonham,
I loved Mitch Mitchell.
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Ginger Baker's phenomenal.
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And actually my favorite
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Unknown
drumming of his was when he went
and played with Fela Kuti.
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Unknown
It was rock,
there was funk, there was New Orleans R&B,
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Unknown
and that was kind of the beginning
of the getting the ball rolling.
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Unknown
Yeah, I mean, there was also jazz,
traditional jazz,
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Unknown
even some zydeco and Cajun music in there.
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Unknown
When I was in high school, I was playing.
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Unknown
You know, covering meter songs with my
my band.
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Unknown
The first time I came to
New Orleans was in
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Unknown
1996.
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Unknown
I came down here with my dad,
who was in the broadcasting business,
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Unknown
and they used to have a convention
down here called the convention.
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Unknown
The first day that I was there,
I was on the floor with him and he was
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Unknown
doing business, and I was sort of like,
you know, walking about and,
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Unknown
you know, to date myself, it was like,
you know, there were like the Bay Watch
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Unknown
actresses
and Chuck Norris and, you know, but then
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Unknown
out of the
corner of my eye, I spotted Quincy Jones.
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And Quincy was, you know,
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Unknown
had an audience and a lot of people
that were surrounding him.
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Unknown
So I sort of took
my time and waited till everybody
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stopped, you know, milling about.
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Unknown
And I went up to him
very politely and said,
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Unknown
Mr. Jones, I'm a huge fan.
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Unknown
You're a huge inspiration to me.
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Unknown
I'm going to Berklee
College of Music right now.
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Unknown
I know you were one of the first people
to study it at Berkeley,
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Unknown
and I just wanted to ask you
if you had any advice
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for an aspiring musician.
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Unknown
And he looked at me.
He looked at my name tag.
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Unknown
I had one of those, you know,
like convention center name tags.
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Unknown
And he said, well,
Joseph, that's a good question.
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He said,
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Unknown
he looked at me and said, yeah, get good.
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Unknown
And I remember the look on his face
after he said that, because I must have
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Unknown
had a really crestfallen look,
like I'm trying to get good.
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Unknown
That's why I'm doing this. You know.
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Unknown
And he said, well,
let me let me elaborate.
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Unknown
He said, most people
your age spend more time
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Unknown
trying to sell and market themselves
than working on their craft,
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Unknown
and if they would just work on their craft
and really,
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Unknown
you know, try to perfect that,
all of the praise and admiration and,
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Unknown
you know,
the selling will just come to you.
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Unknown
So my advice is try to work on your craft
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Unknown
and spend less time
working on promoting your craft,
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Unknown
which I thought was, I mean, I didn't even
really understand that until,
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you know,
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Unknown
understand how profound it was
until years later.
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Yeah.
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Unknown
He's one of those good advice guys
where he just uses two words get good.
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Unknown
It didn't really have the effect on me
until I actually did
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start getting good.
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Unknown
Then I was like, oh, oh, oh, okay.
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Unknown
My first semester there, I met
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Unknown
Idris Muhammad,
who was actually coming through on a tour
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Unknown
with John Scofield,
and I actually asked him for a lesson
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Unknown
after the show, and he was like,
yeah, sure.
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Unknown
He took the T from Cambridge to Back Bay,
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Unknown
where Berklee is,
and we got a practice room.
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Unknown
He gave me like a two hour lesson.
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Unknown
This is the first drummer
that I had ever heard play like that
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Unknown
New Orleans parade style drumming,
you know, with the buzz rolls and the
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Unknown
the drags and the, you know,
the really syncopated cowbell rhythms.
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Unknown
And, you know, he was explaining it to me.
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Unknown
He spent the whole day,
you know, about Cambridge.
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Unknown
He was incredibly generous with his time.
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Unknown
And, you know, he was explaining to
me like, yeah, you know, the
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on the drum set, I'm
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Unknown
playing the bass drum
and the cymbal part from the brass band,
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Unknown
and then I'm playing a Mardi Gras
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Unknown
Indian tambourine rhythms on the tom toms.
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Unknown
And I said to him,
what's a Mardi Gras Indian?
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Unknown
And said,
oh man, you gotta get down to New Orleans.
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Well definitely Earl Palmer.
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Unknown
And I would say, you know, going back
even further, Baby Dodds.
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Unknown
Baby Dodds was one of the first
facilitators of being able to,
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Unknown
really put a bass drum player
and a snare drum player
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Unknown
and a cymbal player and integrate
all of those into one instrument.
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In early New Orleans,
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Unknown
they would allow the enslaved people
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Unknown
to get together and practice their
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Unknown
religions on Sundays in Congo Square.
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Unknown
Because of that,
you had all these different parts
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of the African diaspora
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coming together in one place.
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They blended all these cultures.
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Unknown
And then eventually, because, you know,
European instruments were coming in
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Unknown
and the music of the day that was popular
basically just started applying
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their influences onto those instruments.
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Just like you here today.
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Unknown
Some of my favorite New Orleans drummers
that we didn't get to were,
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Unknown
you know, Ziggy from The Meters
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Unknown
electron, even I, like
some of these guys are in the current.
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Unknown
Okay. You want to hear my
you want to hear my favorites?
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Unknown
Paul Boudreaux,
he played on a lot of sessions.
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Unknown
He was the drummer with the Wild Magnolias
on those original recordings.
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Unknown
Ziggaboo and a lot of the people
that came out of Cosimo Mattassa’s
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Unknown
Idris was a very early drummer.
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Herlin Riley can't.
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I mean, he's an absolutely exceptional
Shannon Powell.
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You can't forget Shannon Powell,
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you know, and then there are
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Unknown
these amazing percussionists
like Cyril Neville and Alfred Uganda Roberts
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Unknown
who played on all these sessions
with Professor Longhair
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Unknown
and the Wild Magnolias and these classic,
classic recordings.
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Unknown
I think I got the The Funk
Bug at Berkelee
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A lot of my peers
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Unknown
were really into funk from the 70s
and the 60s,
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like James Brown, especially
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Unknown
Herbie Hancock, like Thrust and Flood and
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Unknown
all of that series of of bands that he had
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Unknown
with Harvey Mason and Mike Clark and,
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Unknown
and then also like, you know,
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Unknown
Tower of Power and then, you know, stuff
that was contemporary,
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Unknown
that was coming out at the time, like,
you know, Michel N’degeocello.
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Unknown
And one of the real joys
of going to Berkelee was that I was able
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Unknown
to see some of the best musicians
in the world who were up and coming
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Unknown
like I was, you know, able to go
see the guys from lettuce
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Unknown
when they were just starting out
and playing at Wally's Cafe
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Unknown
and being exposed to all this
funk music was,
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you know, just so inspiring.
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Unknown
But James Brown's drummer
has really changed the world around,
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Unknown
and he was so good at sort of continuously
slicing up his new ideas.
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Unknown
And he's probably the most influential
musician to me of the 20th century.
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Yeah.
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Unknown
And he actually says to the band,
every instrument is a drum.
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Unknown
And he did walk around the band and play
all the instruments.
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Unknown
He probably played them
in a very progressive manner.
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Exactly.
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Unknown
You know, I think James Brown is on
is a huge influence on me.
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Unknown
Clyde Stubblefield,
Jabba Starks, the way that they approached
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that, that syncopation
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Unknown
and just the, you know, it was it's
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Unknown
very similar to a New Orleans thing
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Unknown
of just the call and response
and the repetition.
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Unknown
And in fact, maybe about 20 years ago,
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Unknown
I had the
I had a really interesting experience.
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Unknown
I was on vacation in the Florida Panhandle
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Unknown
and sort of like around the Destin area,
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Unknown
and we went into a restaurant
and they were playing some
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Unknown
the band was playing some James
Brown songs, but,
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the drumming was exceptional.
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Unknown
And as soon as I walked into the door
and I said,
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Unknown
I walked up to the hostess and I said,
who is playing drums right now?
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Unknown
And she she said, oh, you mean Jabo?
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Unknown
And I was like, no,
like Jabo like THE Jabo Starks.
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Unknown
And she was like,
yeah, he plays here every Thursday.
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Unknown
It was like walking into a dream.
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Unknown
And I, you know,
he was super gracious and humble.
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Unknown
And I talked to him after the show.
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Unknown
And these guys were were just incredible,
incredible musicians.
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Well, if you listen to.
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Unknown
Reggae music especially like
sort of from the Bob Marley era,
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Unknown
like if you listen to the drums,
they're they're
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Unknown
almost like they all start with these,
like roll offs
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Unknown
So for instance, like New Orleans
drumming for trad
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jazz is usually like.
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[mouths drum sounds]
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Like that.
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Unknown
And if you hear
like those Carlton Barrett,
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Unknown
he would do like, you know, when you hear
lots of these songs
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Unknown
that would always start
with [mounths drum sounds]
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Unknown
You know, like that sort of style.
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Unknown
And it's,
I mean, that's New Orleans right there.
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Unknown
Plus, it's a good segue into talking about
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Unknown
the rhythm of New Orleans,
which is very popular
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Unknown
in New Orleans, indicative of lots
of styles of New Orleans.
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Unknown
Music is what they call the Big four,
which is that the accent
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Unknown
is at the end of a two bar phrase
instead of in like cut time.
00:13:01 - 00:13:04
Unknown
So instead of it being like, got got
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[mouths percussion]
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[mouths percussion]
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Unknown
And that is what gives New Orleans music
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Unknown
that sort of like lanky, funky loose
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Unknown
syncopation
that it's, you know, it's known for.
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Unknown
So another thing that's interesting
in that Jamaican combine
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Unknown
that we just talked about,
because we're thinking
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Unknown
about intros on drum passages
and the whole song,
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Unknown
Charlie Watts was like one of the
my idols of this, like,
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Unknown
like the beginning of like,
you know, get off my cloud or something.
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Unknown
And so you know exactly what song is from
the first, you know, bar of it.
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Unknown
And he has that on so many good ones in
Honky Tonk Women is probably my favorite
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in a certain sense,
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Unknown
where it's like, it's
this melding of the thing,
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Unknown
you know, originally there was, you know,
00:14:02 - 00:14:04
Unknown
rockabilly was like,
you know, the black side of the music
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Unknown
and the white side,
the the mountain sound,
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Unknown
the high and lonesome sound
getting together with the Delta sound.
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Unknown
You know, it's it's blues and it's
then it's picking up the melodies off of.
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It's always some combination.
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Unknown
It's the Americana wishbone.
That's why it's soul country.
00:14:16 - 00:14:16
That's why
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Clint Eastwood says
00:14:17 - 00:14:20
Unknown
the only two original American
art forms are jazz in the Western.
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Unknown
I'm just saying the same stuff
00:14:21 - 00:14:24
Unknown
that everybody's always been talking about
is any good? Yeah.
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Unknown
And the Beatles have this stuff,
you know, in aces.
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Yeah.
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Unknown
And, you know, it's interesting
because actually a lot of the
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sort of
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Unknown
like Aaron Neville and people that era,
00:14:38 - 00:14:39
Unknown
you know, they listen to Am stations
00:14:39 - 00:14:43
Unknown
and there was a lot of country music
that was just.
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Unknown
Sort of yeah, if you're in rural America
and a lot of America was in rural America
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pre-World War two. Sure.
00:14:48 - 00:14:50
Unknown
And then there was also
the Western movies.
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Popular culture.
00:14:51 - 00:14:55
Unknown
That's why a guy from Alabama
calls his band the Drifting Cowboys
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and Saint Williams.
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Unknown
And look, the meters have covered.
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Unknown
I mean, it's a little bit
more maybe Cajun influenced, but
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they recorded the song jambalaya.
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They recorded.
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Wichita Lineman.
00:15:10 - 00:15:12
Unknown
Yeah, that's my favorite track by them.
Yeah, yeah.
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Unknown
They've you know, they've,
they've done some stuff that they have
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Unknown
a, they have a song
called out in the Country to.
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Unknown
I brought this up to them.
00:15:21 - 00:15:25
Unknown
In fact, George Porter junior said to me,
we used to do Delta Dawn
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that Ziggy used to sing.
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Oh, wow.
00:15:27 - 00:15:28
Unknown
I can only imagine that one.
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Unknown
But obviously I did love
the one you're with is the Nevilles.
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And they did.
00:15:31 - 00:15:32
Unknown
I think they played it live as the Meters.
00:15:32 - 00:15:35
Unknown
But yeah, there was a lot of Stephen
Stills stuff that was in the crossovers.
00:15:35 - 00:15:35
Oh, wow.
00:15:35 - 00:15:37
Unknown
And there was
these are just Venn diagrams,
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Unknown
you know,
like the one thing overlaps another thing.
00:15:39 - 00:15:41
Unknown
And that's where that Gulf culture
kind of comes in.
00:15:41 - 00:15:45
Unknown
We've got the Cajun Creole thing
maybe that spreads all the way from,
00:15:45 - 00:15:47
Unknown
you know, Houston
all the way over to mobile or whatever.
00:15:47 - 00:15:49
Unknown
And then then you get this funky Drummer
thing and like,
00:15:49 - 00:15:52
Unknown
some of these guys are coming
out of mobile and still the same culture.
00:15:52 - 00:15:56
Unknown
And, and, you know, bringing it
back to the Mardi Gras, Indians like that,
00:15:56 - 00:15:59
Unknown
you know,
that's sort of shrouded in legend
00:15:59 - 00:16:05
Unknown
and secrecy, really, until the beginning
00:16:05 - 00:16:09
Unknown
of the last century,
end of the 19th century. And,
00:16:10 - 00:16:10
you know,
00:16:10 - 00:16:14
Unknown
it wasn't until, like, people
like the Times-Picayune,
00:16:15 - 00:16:17
you know, basically
00:16:17 - 00:16:21
Unknown
was able to document, you know,
00:16:21 - 00:16:26
Unknown
with photographically with taking photos
of the first Mardi Gras Indian tribes.
00:16:26 - 00:16:29
But you know, that rhythmically
00:16:29 - 00:16:34
that is probably predates even,
00:16:36 - 00:16:38
Unknown
you know, traditional jazz and ragtime,
00:16:38 - 00:16:41
even because that those those
00:16:42 - 00:16:45
Unknown
were done, you know, in the street
00:16:46 - 00:16:50
Unknown
a cappella call and response chance
and they would just bring
00:16:50 - 00:16:56
Unknown
whatever they could carry for percussion
like tambourines and cowbells, maybe like
00:16:56 - 00:16:59
Unknown
a glass bottle with a comb
00:16:59 - 00:17:03
Unknown
or something
that they would be able to just hit.
00:17:03 - 00:17:05
Unknown
And, and people still do that
stuff, you know,
00:17:05 - 00:17:08
Unknown
they’ll just pick up
whatever makes a sound, you know?
00:17:08 - 00:17:11
Unknown
In fact, Iko Iko that
the Dixie cups did
00:17:11 - 00:17:14
was actually supposedly
00:17:14 - 00:17:20
Unknown
taking lighters
and in a glass ashtray just to do the.
00:17:23 - 00:17:25
So. But those rhythms
00:17:25 - 00:17:30
Unknown
go as far back as I can imagine, you know,
so the that
00:17:30 - 00:17:35
Unknown
and they play the
like the Mardi Gras Indian rhythms really.
00:17:35 - 00:17:38
Unknown
It's that same sort of like Hemiola pattern,
00:17:39 - 00:17:42
Unknown
the clave pattern, which is like the.
00:17:43 - 00:17:47
Unknown
Got the got to get to do.
00:17:47 - 00:17:48
Like that.
00:17:48 - 00:17:52
Unknown
Your website says you blend funk, gospel,
Mardi Gras, Indian tambourine rhythms,
00:17:52 - 00:17:54
Afro-Caribbean grooves, jazz and second
00:17:54 - 00:17:57
Unknown
line traditions to create
a very distinctive New Orleans sound.
00:17:57 - 00:18:00
Unknown
But I want to comment on that
as a specific a form of Americana
00:18:00 - 00:18:03
Unknown
and where you started with that
and where you're taking it to,
00:18:04 - 00:18:06
Unknown
like the Mardi Gras and tradition
in that sense.
00:18:06 - 00:18:09
I think that because
00:18:09 - 00:18:15
Unknown
I play so much Mardi Gras Indian music,
00:18:15 - 00:18:20
Unknown
I'm I'm blessed and fortunate
to be able to be a guest of that culture.
00:18:21 - 00:18:22
You know, and
00:18:22 - 00:18:25
Unknown
my favorite stuff to do
is the parading on the streets.
00:18:27 - 00:18:30
So, you know, for the,
00:18:30 - 00:18:35
Unknown
the holidays, for Mardi Gras Day,
Saint Joseph's Day, Super Sundays,
00:18:35 - 00:18:39
Unknown
those are all the, you know,
when I go out with a bass drum and,
00:18:39 - 00:18:42
and accompany them and,
00:18:42 - 00:18:45
Unknown
you know, so that for a long time
00:18:45 - 00:18:49
Unknown
I was sort of a purist
just doing that on the drum set.
00:18:49 - 00:18:53
Unknown
And, and now I'm really exploring
00:18:54 - 00:18:56
both some different voices.
00:18:56 - 00:19:00
Unknown
Like, I'm
definitely incorporating different sounds,
00:19:00 - 00:19:04
Unknown
like I use an array of cowbells right
now, and
00:19:05 - 00:19:08
even some like electronic instruments.
00:19:08 - 00:19:10
Unknown
And I try to be able to,
00:19:10 - 00:19:12
Unknown
you know,
take the have one foot in the tradition
00:19:12 - 00:19:12
Unknown
and one foot in, you know, being able to,
00:19:12 - 00:19:16
Unknown
and one foot leaning towards the future.
00:19:16 - 00:19:18
Unknown
That's why I kind of liked what you were
talking about with people in the streets.
00:19:18 - 00:19:21
Unknown
And the people, even at your shows
are dancing up in front.
00:19:21 - 00:19:23
Unknown
It's sort of do it yourself
format somehow.
00:19:23 - 00:19:25
Yeah.
00:19:25 - 00:19:27
When you find one.
00:19:27 - 00:19:29
That was the thing that.
00:19:29 - 00:19:34
Unknown
Actually made me want to move to
New Orleans the most was that I would go
00:19:34 - 00:19:37
Unknown
see, like brass
band, played the Maple Leaf back
00:19:37 - 00:19:41
Unknown
in the day,
and the interaction between the band
00:19:41 - 00:19:44
Unknown
and the crowd and the dancing
and the singing
00:19:44 - 00:19:48
Unknown
and the just excitement, you know,
it was like a communal event.
00:19:48 - 00:19:51
It wasn't just performative
00:19:52 - 00:19:54
Unknown
and the audience wasn't just, you know,
00:19:54 - 00:19:59
Unknown
sitting back in a theater chair,
you know, golf clapping.
00:19:59 - 00:19:59
All right.
00:19:59 - 00:20:00
Unknown
So now in the release history.
00:20:00 - 00:20:04
Unknown
You've got four albums out Funk and
Feathers, Spy Boy, My People, and Rise Up.
00:20:04 - 00:20:07
Unknown
I think I first clued into it
on the My People album.
00:20:07 - 00:20:09
Unknown
Tell me about the evolution
among those albums.
00:20:09 - 00:20:11
Funk and Feathers.
00:20:11 - 00:20:12
We were.
00:20:12 - 00:20:15
Really playing mostly
00:20:16 - 00:20:19
traditional call and response chants.
00:20:20 - 00:20:23
Ooh Not Nee
00:20:24 - 00:20:26
Indians, Here They Come.
00:20:26 - 00:20:30
Unknown
You know, some of the
the staples of the Mardi Gras
00:20:30 - 00:20:33
Unknown
Indian catalog that really the, the wild
00:20:33 - 00:20:36
Magnolias and the wild is,
00:20:36 - 00:20:41
Unknown
you know, famously combined
Mardi Gras Indian chants and rhythms
00:20:41 - 00:20:46
Unknown
with like a funk band in the studio
and which was the,
00:20:46 - 00:20:50
Unknown
you know, in the case of the Wild
Magnolias, it was the the Gators,
00:20:50 - 00:20:54
Unknown
you know, Willy Tee and Ear Tee of the,
the Gators. Turbingtons
00:20:55 - 00:20:58
Unknown
And with the wild chopped tulips,
it was like, you know,
00:20:59 - 00:21:03
Unknown
the Nevilles
and The Meters, you know, backing them up.
00:21:03 - 00:21:07
Unknown
So and before that, that
that really hadn't been done.
00:21:07 - 00:21:11
Unknown
So I started out with that primarily.
00:21:11 - 00:21:15
Unknown
And then,
you know, as we got into Spy Boy,
00:21:15 - 00:21:20
Unknown
I always I always want
each album to have its own theme.
00:21:20 - 00:21:25
Unknown
And I think I've been able to do that
with the musicians
00:21:25 - 00:21:29
Unknown
and the Mardi Gras Indians
that are playing in the band.
00:21:29 - 00:21:32
Unknown
So Funk and Feathers
was really traditional.
00:21:32 - 00:21:34
Call and response chants
00:21:34 - 00:21:37
Unknown
Then once I started playing with more of
like a.
00:21:37 - 00:21:37
Less like.
00:21:37 - 00:21:42
Unknown
Traditional funk rhythm section
and more brass band ensemble,
00:21:42 - 00:21:47
Unknown
we switched from an electric bass
to a sousaphone, added
00:21:47 - 00:21:53
Unknown
horns up
front, sax and trumpet and trombone and
00:21:54 - 00:21:55
and then, you know,
00:21:55 - 00:22:00
Unknown
we had guitar in organ still,
but it was really like coming from a,
00:22:01 - 00:22:04
Unknown
you know,
sort of this hybrid of brass band music.
00:22:05 - 00:22:09
Unknown
And that's something that I was like
really obsessed with at the time.
00:22:09 - 00:22:11
So we did that.
00:22:11 - 00:22:15
Unknown
And then my people,
we were sort of going for like a more
00:22:16 - 00:22:18
like old school kind of.
00:22:18 - 00:22:20
Retro - Funk
00:22:20 - 00:22:22
On this one. Rise up.
00:22:22 - 00:22:26
Unknown
It was really like we,
I was really exploring
00:22:27 - 00:22:30
different songwriting techniques,
00:22:30 - 00:22:34
Unknown
and I was working with other co-writers,
really tried
00:22:34 - 00:22:38
Unknown
to do something that was like in the vein
of, like Paul Simon's Graceland.
00:22:38 - 00:22:41
Unknown
And, you know, ultimately it's really like
00:22:41 - 00:22:45
Unknown
those are just little slices of life,
00:22:45 - 00:22:49
Unknown
you know, like it's sort of
you get to document where you were
00:22:49 - 00:22:53
Unknown
in your life during those,
those different times that we recorded it.
00:22:53 - 00:22:58
Unknown
I'm grateful that we've
been able to be this prolific so far.
00:22:59 - 00:23:08
Unknown
[sung] Smoke my peace pipe, smoke it right..
00:23:08 - 00:23:09
Now, let's talk about legacy.
00:23:09 - 00:23:11
Unknown
How would you like to be remembered?
00:23:11 - 00:23:12
Music is a celebration
00:23:12 - 00:23:17
Unknown
and if I can keep it that way,
then I think I'm I'm doing my job.
00:23:17 - 00:23:21
Unknown
And if I'm being a service to other,
you know, people in recovery,
00:23:21 - 00:23:26
Unknown
then I'm fulfilling that part of my legacy
and give.
00:23:26 - 00:23:30
Unknown
Back to New Orleans,
because New Orleans has given
00:23:30 - 00:23:33
so much to me.
00:23:37 - 00:23:38
When someone plays music
00:23:38 - 00:23:44
Unknown
and I have a profound spiritual experience
because of it,
00:23:44 - 00:23:50
Unknown
you know, if I've gotten to see Stevie
Wonder, these are spiritual,
00:23:50 - 00:23:55
Unknown
sacred experiences that I'm I get to do
by playing music and listening to music.
00:23:55 - 00:23:57
Unknown
And I always say, hey, with Cha Wa
00:23:57 - 00:24:00
Unknown
we're having a party on stage
and everybody's invited.
00:24:00 - 00:24:03
Unknown
Thanks for coming by, Soul Country.
Thanks for having me.
00:24:03 - 00:24:05
Soul country.
00:24:05 - 00:24:08
Unknown
Number 15 is in the books
with special appreciation to Joe,
00:24:08 - 00:24:12
Unknown
Single Lock Records and Reed Mathis
for our theme song, We Ride.
00:24:13 - 00:24:17
Unknown
Tune in again for more roots
music, culture and lore and find trailers,
00:24:17 - 00:24:21
Unknown
highlights, and playlists, as well as
a full archive of episodes at SoulCountry.com
00:24:22 - 00:24:23
[shout n whinny]
Joe Gelini – Drummer, Bandleader and the Funk Soul of Cha Wa
Listen:
Description
Joe Gelini opens with his story as an 18-year-old Berklee student spotting Quincy Jones at a 1996 New Orleans convention, waiting out the crowd, asking for advice and gets two words back: "Get good." Direct as it was, it didn't make much sense until years later.
From there Joe traces his path into the Crescent City as he tracks down legendary drummer Idris Muhammad after a John Scofield show for a two-hour lesson in parade drumming. Along the way he as covered Meters songs with his high school band and relocated to New Orleans to parade in the streets on Mardi Gras Day with a bass drum alongside the Indian tribes.
Joe unpacks the deep history of New Orleans as the cradle of American music including Congo Square, the Maroon communities, the big four rhythm and the clave pattern running from Mardi Gras Indian chants through reggae to James Brown. All is one and on the one as he breaks down four Cha Wa albums from traditional call and response on Funk and Feathers to something in the vein of Paul Simon's Graceland on Rise Up and closes with a legacy answer that has nothing to do with drumming.
"With Cha Wa, we're having a party on stage and everybody's invited." - Joe Gelini
More about Joe Gelini
Joe Gelini is the founding musical director and drummer of Cha Wa, the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian funk collective with two Grammy nominations for Best Regional Roots Music Album - Spyboy (2018) and My People (2021). A Miami native raised on a wide palette from Jimi Hendrix to Louis Armstrong, Gelini came to New Orleans first as a teenager with his father, a broadcasting executive with deep roots in the city's music scene.
He studied at Berklee College of Music, where a chance encounter with Idris Muhammad opened the door to New Orleans parade drumming and set the course for a life in the Crescent City. Gelini is a guest of the Mardi Gras Indian culture, parading the streets on Mardi Gras Day and Saint Joseph's Night with a bass drum alongside the tribes, one foot in tradition and one foot leaning toward the future.
Cha Wa has released four albums tracing an evolution from traditional call and response chants on Funk and Feathers to brass band hybrids on Spyboy, retro funk on My People and the contemporary production of Rise Up (2025), recorded on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and featuring Irma Thomas and John Boutté. Gelini co-writes and produces across all of it.
Beyond Cha Wa he plays Sunday services at Bethel Lutheran Church, has collaborated with the Northern Cree pow wow community in Canada, and is 17 years sober - a journey that shapes his music and his work with others in recovery.
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