" Big Chief "  Roderick Sylvas

 This tribe marked a milestone for New Orleans music when it became one of the first Mardi Gras Indian tribes to record their particular call and response songs  for a major record label .  The tribe was founded in 1967, but the beginning as a musical group formed by it's leader and then, Big Chief Jolly, was one of first to promote the calls or  "chants" of the tribes. The success of the song "Iko Iko", by the Dixie Cups in 1971 caused a mad rush by a small group of promoters to find out where the song originated. The tribe caught the eye of those local promoters and were recorded in the 1980's with the New Orleans Project . The group went  through it's gambit of semi gospel style of the popular call-and-response chants that have become funky mantras.  Covering the traditional numbers they go way, way back.