New Orleans-based drummer, bandleader, songwriter and educator Joe Gelini is a founding member of the Grammy Nominated Mardi Gras Indian funk band Cha Wa. A graduate of the esteemed Berklee College of Music, Gelini’s consummate talents have led to collaborations and performances with New Orleans’s most significant musicians including The Wild Magnolias, Art Neville, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Cyril Neville, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Alvin Youngblood Hart and many others.

An educator with 16 years of experience, Gelini’s teaching includes positions at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Music Box Village. In addition to his performing, recording and teaching careers, Gelini is a husband, father, and a musician in recovery. His official endorsement partners include Porter & Davies. Cha Wa’s latest album, My People, is available now on Single Lock Records.”