MOJA: A Music Saga – Triumphs with Gospel Songs Produced by Gospel Vocalist To The Stars, Arrange and Producer Linda McCrary-Fisher
MOJA is the History of Black Music from Africa To America featuring 3x Grammy Nominee and Blues Hall of Famer Billy Branch And Actor Darius McCrary
(Los Angeles, CA – August 17, 2022) MOJA: A Music Saga’s new single “Triumph” continues to make upward moves on radio, gaining 10+ chart positions in one week. The anthem representing freedom for every soul is just one of the songs on the MOJA: A Music Saga eight-volume set Choir Director by gifted veteran vocalist, songwriter, and Linda McCrary-Fisher.
McCrary-Fisher, the aunt of actor and producer, Darius McCrary, who is also featured on MOJA, produced and arranged the choir songs on MOJA: A Music Saga. The singer to the stars has carved out an eclectic path in music entertainment that spans decades. Featured in the Oscar Award-winning documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom, McCrary-Fisher has worked on music projects with such greats as gospel legend Andrae Crouch, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and blues great Bobby Rush.
Other gospel songs on the project touched by McCrary-Fisher’s magic include “Language of The Soul,” “Preacher” and “Valley of the Dancing bones.”
McCrary-Fisher expresses, “Sometimes when we say yes to a project you don’t realize the depth or the magnitude that it may be. However, 5 years into working on Moja proved to be an incredible journey and a definitive eye opener. The pleasure of arranging the vocals was more than just putting backgrounds on songs. It was literally stepping back in time and embracing the reality of what each character had to endure. With that being said there was pain, tears, joy laughter, but most of all it was the life-changing nostalgia of singing through this journey for all to hear and painting a visual validating what we endured as Africans and African Americans. My thanks to Carl Gustafson for his vision and patience. To all the singers and musicians, it was my absolute pleasure to be in the same room with you especially after hearing this prestigious masterpiece in its entirety making each and every moment worth it”.
It’s exciting to mention that MOJA’s hit single “Triumph” is an anthem that fuses the music and cultures of Hip Hop, Afro Beats, Pop, and R&B. For the 4th week in a row, the victorious single continues to work its way up BDS radio’s Top 40 Most Added and Media Base charts, making it a hit across genres, generations, and cultures. The radio campaign for MOJA’s “Triumph” is headed by Jamal Salter of 007 Media Group.
MOJA: A Music Saga, the history of Black Music from Africa to America’s Gospel, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Hip-Hop told through seven generations of the Ellis family. The historic eight-volume set rolls out its final album of the series this month.
Volumes 1 thru 7 of the historic MOJA: A Music Saga, have been released and are available on Spotify. Volume 8, the final album in the MOJA album series will be released later in August. The entire MOJA: A Music Saga series set is Free for your listening experience on Spotify or on www. Mojasaga.com
MOJA: A Music Saga featured voice actors are 3x Grammy Nominee, Emmy Award winner, and Blues Hall of FamerBilly Branch, who plays fearless grandfather Innes Ellis, patriarch of the Ellis family, and actor, rapper, singer and producer, Darius McCrary as Sitano, Innes’ Hip Hop superstar grandson.
MOJA: A Music Saga is a 165-year journey where Billy Branch’s character Iness Ellis, the fourth generation of the Muziki family of musicians in America, unpacks their musical legacy to his grandson Sitano through historically based stories intertwined with the evolution of musical genres of American music rooted in the soul of African music.
MOJA: A Music Saga is a 75-song musical event that took five years to complete. It utilized the talents of 500 musicians, singers, artists, producers, Grammy Award winners and nominees from around the globe.
Grammy-nominated musician, producer, writer, and creator of MOJA: A Music Saga, Carl Gustafson said, “Integrity toward the music is paramount. The songs about Africa were recorded in Africa by Africans. The songs of Cuba were recorded in Cuba by Cubans. Same in New Orleans, Chicago, Mississippi, England, and everywhere else the story went.
MOJA: A Music Saga is an audio adventure that skillfully uses skits, sound effects, and original music to tell the story of how African music has influenced American music through seven generations of the Ellis family. The family’s story starts with Moja Musiki, a.k.a. Moja Ellis, a tall, attractive, strong African female drummer who was taken from her home in East Africa and sold into slavery in New Orleans in the 1850s. She survived the perils of slavery and raised her son Billi Ellis using her music skills. The Ellis family gift of music was then passed down to Billi’s daughter, musician and band leader Tattie, her son Innes, and his daughter Tanya, ending in today’s time with Moja’s great-great grandson, Hip Hop star Sitano and his two-year-old daughter Sabbath.
Executive produced by two-time Grammy Award-winning Blues great Bobby Rush, and world-renowned Djembe master, Weedie Braimah, MOJA: A Music Saga immerses the listener in an entertaining, dramatic, sometimes gritty, and realistic history lesson of a people and their music, from slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow and segregation to the civil rights era.
“MOJA: A Music Saga is not a musical. The characters don’t break out singing. It is not an audiobook. It’s not a documentary, but it does have historical facts, dates, names, and places. It is a story that had already been written by those who lived it. MOJA is part of a conscious effort to tell these stories and project the many generations of voices that have historically been silenced,” explained Gustafson.
MOJA: A Music Saga is destined to have an international impact on music lovers and historians alike, changing the world’s view of Africa’s influence on American Music forever.
For more information, or to stream or purchase MOJA: A Music Saga visit www.mojasaga.com
About Carl Gustafson, Writer and Producer of MOJA: A Music Saga
Born in Deadwood, S. Dakota, Grammy nominee, musician, producer, adventurer, and writer, Carl Gustafson, grew. up in Laramie, Wyoming where his first jobs were on cattle ranches as a teenager. He formed his first band at eighteen years old after falling in love with soul, old R&B, James Brown Funk, and Blues. Music has taken him to forty-four countries including eight trips to Africa where he traveled coast to coast.
Carl’s band, Blinddog Smokin’, was dubbed “America’s Road Warriors” by Southland Blues Magazine for their relentless touring schedule. Along the backroads, they met Blues Great, Bobby Rush, and Carl and they became fast friends and remained so over the decades, and periodically tour together. They used to discuss and ponder the origins of the music they loved, and it led to a twelve-song road show depicting the journey of African -influenced music over time. But before they even started, they realized they were only scratching the surface, and the concept of what has now become the Moja project was born.
Carl is the author of the book, Ain’t Just Blues, It’s Showtime, has been a columnist for many magazines, and was recently elected to the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame. Carl and his band’s songwriting and recording with Dr.John and Bobby Rush landed them Backbeat Magazine’s Blues Album of the year, Blues Blast Magazine’s SoulBlues Album of the year, and took them to the Grammys. Carl has written and recorded over 200 songs. He lives in Laramie, Wyoming with his wife Linda. He has three daughters, a son, a stepdaughter, and six grandchildren.