The story has become mythic. A young Quint Davis, now the long time producer/director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, hears a distinctive voice carrying over tambourines ringing through a sweaty crowd in a tiny, back-of-town barroom. The voice belongs to Theodore Emile “Bo” Dollis, the Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias, who passed away January 20, 2015 at the age of 71.
Davis recruited Dollis to help spread the word about the brand new festival in an era when word of mouth was the only form of social media, spearheaded efforts to record that unparalleled voice, and formed an unlikely partnership. Over the ensuing decades, Dollis emerged from the tightknit, insular world of the black Indians of New Orleans to the center of several major shifts in the unique culture.
He was one of the first Indians to record the call-and-response chants, which define the musical aspect of the culture. He continued to record throughout his long career including two ground-breaking recordings in the 1970s. Those albums, the eponymous Wild Magnolias and They Call Us Wild, became the holy grail for vinyl crate diggers a decade later due to their limited pressings.
The recordings added another layer to the deep palette of New Orleans music by pairing the Indian chanting and percussion with funk musicians led by keyboardist and songwriter Willie Tee and including guitarist Snooks Eaglin, Professor Longhair’s percussionist Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, and Tee’s brother, saxophonist Earl Turbinton.
The electrified funk they created set the stage for a new chapter in the long history of the Mardi Gras Indians and led to numerous other recordings by a wide variety of artists each adapting the music to the sounds of subsequent eras.
As a performer, Dollis was peerless. Along with his longtime partner, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles, they developed a stage act and brought the Indian music to the world. Dollis was the ringleader, barking out his cryptic lyrics and egging the band on to ever-higher pinnacles of funk.
Boudreaux was the mystical sage, calling down lightening and thunder and balancing a tower of musical energy before Dollis returned center stage to drive the band and the crowd higher and higher.
Dollis was at the center of another groundbreaking collaboration when he teamed up with the Rebirth Brass Band creating yet another musical hybrid. Their recordings and performances brought together two distinct, but closely interconnected elements of the black culture of New Orleans.
Bo Dollis credited his powerful voice to his youth singing in church in his Central City neighborhood. His tribe is named for the Magnolia housing project at the center of the community. His parents did not approve of his involvement with the black Indians because the groups were considered to be composed of dangerous men and their gatherings could, and sometimes did, turn violent.
Dollis, along with a few other Indians of his era, was at the forefront of the shift within the culture away from ragtag costumes, known as “suits,” and gang-like turf battles towards esthetic competitions based on singing and sewing prowess. No one could touch him with a tambourine in his hand and a powerful cry on his lips. He was always the prettiest. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
