• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

May 25, 2021 Web Exclusive By Haydon Spenceley

My People, the newest album from New Orleans-based Grammy nominees, the self-described “brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit” Cha Wa, does exactly what we need a record to do in these crazy days. It brings the funk and it brings it in spades. Every single song swings with abandon. But the band have something to say, too.

Take the chorus of the opening cut and title track. “My people/We’ve been left behind before/My people/Devil’s knocking on your door/My people/Sad so many had to go/My people/We still here, and one day we gonna all be in the same boat.” It’s simple but devastatingly effective and on-point, all delivered with a hip-shaking groove which only ups its potency and the timeliness of its message.

“Wildman” comes ready-tooled with a pleasing brass groove before some glorious guitar lifts it even higher. Elsewhere, Angelika Jelly Joseph brings a soulful tone to “Love in Your Heart” and Alvin Youngblood Hart makes a stirring contribution to “Masters of War,” which has a real touch of the classic funk of Harlem River Drive about it. If you’re looking for musical sunshine with a strong social conscience, look no further than Cha Wa. (www.chawaband.com)

Author rating: 7/10