Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr

Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr. is an award-winning cultural performer, musician, and educator whose work preserves and promotes the rich cultural heritage of Mardi Gras Indians, a distinctly New Orleans tradition. Together with his band the Wild Magnolias, Dollis, Jr. combines reimaginings of classic songs – including Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” – with contemporary originals on their newest album, Chip Off The Old Block, on Strong Place Records. Merging the West African rhythms, funk, and jazz elements of Mardi Gras Indian music with the blues of Memphis. As Big Chief of the Mardi Gras Indian tribe the Wild Magnolias, the Dollis, Jr. follows in the footsteps of his father Big Chief Bo Dollis, Sr., a progenitor of the Mardi Gras Indian funk sound. Dollis, Jr. began masking, or performing Mardi Gras Indian traditions with the Wild Magnolias, at age 10. In the decades since, he has led the Wild Magnolias on albums including A New Kind of Funk (2013) and My Name is Bo (2021) . Big Chief Bo Dollis, Jr. and the Wild Magnolias have performed on global stages stretching from Australia and Japan to England and Jamaica. In the U.S., they have appeared at the Summer Olympics and the White House. In 2023, they received the Jazz Award at the prestigious Ascona Jazz Festival. They have collaborated and shared stages with GRAMMY-winning icons like Dr. John, Cyril Neville and Leo Nocentelli, as well as Trombone Shorty, Galactic, Master P, Widespread Panic, and many others.