The GrooveoLottos
*On this date in 2009, the GroovaLottos music group is celebrated. They are a three-piece African and Native American funk band.
They are from Mashpee, Massachusetts, and comprise three Black Indians, Mwalim, Christopher Sweeting, and Eddie Ray Johnson, of Wampanoag, Cherokee, and Choctaw backgrounds. They represent the intersectionality of African and Native American heritage. In their beginnings, the Groovalottos blended elements of their Black and Native roots in their music. Mwalim, Director of Black Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and professor of English had been doing musicology research since he began to see Native elements in African American music.
They feel melodic, blues, and spirituals are related through seasoned studio session keyboardist/ vocalist/ producer and solo jazz recording artist Mwalim. They played their first show in 2011 at a multicultural festival in the afternoon and a local club that night. The band quickly rose as a New England regional choice at bars, clubs, and events with their mix of funky soul classics and popular originals.
