Tank and The Bangas

Tank and the Bangas operate as a New Orleans-based R&B ensemble holding a Grammy nomination while moving fluidly among classic soul, funk, hip-hop, reggae, and rock. At the front stands Tarriona Ball, performing as Tank, a singer and poet whose voice can wail in the manner of Patti LaBelle, scold like Millie Jackson, or deliver spoken passages reminiscent of Jill Scott. Recognition arrived through their intensely charged concerts and a series of independent recordings that opened with Think Tank in 2013, followed by their win in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2017, which brought a contract with Verve. Subsequent major-label work includes the albums Green Balloon (2019) and Red Balloon (2022), the linking Friend Goals EP, and a contemplative three-part spoken-word collection launched by The Heart in 2024.

The group first assembled in 2011 after connecting at an open-mike showcase in their hometown of New Orleans. The initial roster comprised Ball, musical director and drummer Joshua Johnson, and bassist and keyboardist Norman Spence. Expansion within a few years added keyboardists Merell Burkett and Joe Johnson, background singer Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, and further associates. Released independently in 2013 as the band’s double-length studio debut, Think Tank featured crowd-pleasing tracks such as “Boxes and Squares,” repeated demonstrations of Ball’s vigorous poetic delivery, and tributes to Deniece Williams (“Oh Heart”) and Minnie Riperton (“Ripperton Love” [sic]). Live documents of local performances followed, among them The Big Bang Theory: Live at Gasa Gasa in 2014—by which time flutist/saxophonist Albert Allenback had joined—and additional captures of their regular appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Joe Johnson departed in 2016.

Wider attention arrived in 2017 when the band defeated more than 6,000 other entrants to win NPR’s third Tiny Desk Contest, earning a unanimous vote from the musician and expert panel. Tank and the Bangas signed with Verve and delivered their major-label debut Live Vibes in 2018. Live Vibes 2 appeared in 2019 alongside Green Balloon, a studio album carrying production input from Mark Batson, Jack Splash, and Zaytoven plus select additional keyboards by Robert Glasper. Despite the high-profile contributors, the band’s singular identity remained intact, securing a Best New Artist nomination at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

A sequence of connecting singles began with a fresh version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” that included fellow New Orleans native PJ Morton among nine featured artists; Tank and the Bangas then issued the collaborations-focused Friend Goals EP in November 2020. That session marked Merell Burkett’s final studio appearance with the group. In 2021 they alternated featured and headlining roles with Big Freedia on the respective singles “Betty Bussit” and “Big.” Their third album, Red Balloon, followed the next May, an assertive collection of observational and celebratory songs produced chiefly by the band yet enriched by contributions from Lalah Hathaway, Questlove, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Trombone Shorty. This release earned Tank and the Bangas a second Grammy nomination, this time for Best Progressive R&B Album, while their subsequent collaboration with Ibrahim Maalouf, “Todo Colores,” received a nomination the following year for Best Global Music Performance. The band next shaped The Heart, The Mind, The Soul, a spoken-word project comprising three EP-length installments released separately across July and August 2024; at the end of that month the trilogy was combined and supplemented with bonus tracks. Production came from James Poyser, Robert Glasper, and Kaidi Tatham, and Jill Scott appeared on the opening piece “A Poem Is.”