Rhythm Makers: Local Band Mo' Mojo Embarks on a Tour of Central and South America

Dominican Republic workshop

After touring Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Akron-based zydeco band Mo’ Mojo is ready for another challenge of breaking down language barriers and connecting with the locals through music.

The American Music Abroad, a program of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has selected Mo’ Mojo as one of 10 American bands to do a five-week tour of Central and South America. Beginning Jan. 20, Mo’ Mojo will travel to Belize, Panama, Barbados, Mexico and Colombia. In addition to performing public concerts, the band will interact with local musicians, give lectures and take part in workshops with students.

The band, which is preparing to release its fourth album, We All Got the Same, in May, has already visited Haiti and Dominican Republic as part of the program. “Every single time — as soon as that energetic zydeco music started — smiles spread across their face and dancing started,” says Leigh Ann Wise, Mo’ Mojo vocalist and percussionist. “It's kind of what zydeco does universally. It makes you smile and dance — or at least tap your toe — no matter what language you speak and no matter what your social status or ethnic background.” Wise chats with us about dancing and jamming out with Haitians and the upcoming trip. 

CM: What is one of your most memorable moments working with locals in Haiti?

LW: We were giving a workshop for the students at The Haitian-American Institute. ... The music started and they started smiling and moving a little. The big shift came when we asked if they want to learn how to dance the zydeco. It’s a two-step. You know, here in the states if you ask high school students if they want to stand up in front of a crowd and learn a dance, it’s likely — in my experience — you’re going to get a lot of resistance. Not these folks. Half the room jumped up and started dancing. By the end of the song, they were teaching us to dance. It was truly one of my favorite moments yet. 

CM: What did you learn in Haiti?

LW: For me, it was my first real hands-on experience of how music transcends language barriers. When we were learning songs with Ti Coca & Wanga Neges, a popular world-traveling Haitian band, no one in their band spoke English and certainly no one in our band spoke Haitian Kreyol, but we gathered outside and just started playing. They learned one of our songs and we learned one of theirs. And you know what was key? Eye contact. If Ti Coca wanted me to learn a lyric I completely did not understand, he’d just keep singing it and looking me in the eye. 

CM: What are you looking forward to the most about the upcoming trip to Central and South America?

LW: The idea that we get to teach kids, to me, is the most fulfilling way to spend my time. Who gets to travel playing music as a mode of communication? It's such a blessing. I feel honored to be a part of it.

Mo' Mojo to radiate positivity at Hessler Street Fair

The Hessler Street Fair kicks off in University Circle this Saturday and Sunday. The fair, founded in 1969, has attracted body artists, drum circlers and positive vibes since its revival in 1995. Nineteen bands are expected to play this year, including the zydeco-cajun-blues outfit Mo’ Mojo. Frontwoman Jen Maurer spoke to us about how, on Sunday at 6:30, the band will jam in front of the sea of long hair and dresses for the first time in a few years. “I think we’re going to be the full eight band,” she says. “Eight members and quite a variety of instruments with fiddle and horns and rubboard and triangle and accordions and whatnot.”

CM: How did you guys come together?

JM: Well the band’s been together since ’95 in one formation or another, and everybody’s come differently. One of the guitar players, his dad was in the band, and now he’s in the band. And another guy caught my eye because he was dancing at one of our shows with my mother, and I thought that was really sweet so he ended up in the band. And another girl—her husband was in the band, and when they got divorced she stayed with the band when he left the band.

CM: You played the Hessler Street Fair before. What was that experience like?

JM: Oh, it was fun. Hessler’s a party. No doubt about it. Crazy party. It’s awesome.

CM: Do you know Carlos Jones? [Jones and his P.L.U.S. Band headline Sunday night at 7:30.]

JM: Yeah. I subbed in his band on bass. His guitar player, Dan, has been a sub for us before. Now we actually share a drummer. If there’s one frontman in all of Cleveland I think that I admire the most, it’s probably Carlos.

CM: So you released an album in 2010 and another one in 2012?

JM: We actually have one—I would say it’s about 70 percent done—that we’re hoping to do sometime this summer. Possibly we’re going to call it We All Got The Same. We like to have positive and fun songs, and so “We All Got The Same” kind of encapsulates the same sort of spirit as “Together In Love We Drown,” which is our second album—just that “we’re all connected” kind of thing.