Midwest Mahjar: The Recorded Sounds of the Arabic-Speaking Diaspora in the United States at 78 RPM

  What’s in a Name? In Search of John Hidar, Derbecki Player A rare photo of John Hidar. Caravan newspaper. Newspapers.com Ever since we researched, composed, and posted the story of Jeanette Harouni, aka Hanan or Hanaan , in 2019, we have known the name John Hidar. According to the album credits on Hanan’s  The Arabian Nightingale  released in 1959, John Hidar [spelled Hyder] sat in as one of two featured drummers along with Ezra James as Hanan’s records transitioned from recording on 78 rpm to 33 1/3 LP. Other musicians in her ensemble included Philip Solomon , Jack Ghanaim , Ray Beilouny, Hakki Obadia, and the great oudist Wadih El-Safi. Hidar’s name rarely, if at all, comes up in discussions about Arab American music, yet his appearance of The Arabian Nightingale was not his only recorded performance. To be sure, in 1962, when Lila Stephan’s   Lila: A Thousand and One Nights  hit record stores, it too, included John “Hidar” on derbecki joined by Mohammed El-Akkad on kanun, Jack G

  Anis Fuleihan: A Lebanese-Cypriot  American Composer, Pianist, and Scholar Rooted in Eastern and Western Musical Traditions Anis Fukeihan, photo from original 1919 document. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Perhaps the best-known musician, pianist, composer, record manufacturer, in early twentieth-century Arab America was Alexander Maloof . Born in 1884, a composer of sheet music by 1900, and contributor to the idea of submitting a potential U.S. national anthem.  We’ve featured both Maloof and the composer Leon S. Nahmee on Midwest Mahjar. While going through stories the name of composer, musician, and pianist - Anis Fuleihan.     Born to Lebanese parents, Yasmine Nassif and Milheim Fuleihan, on 2 April 1900 near Kyrenia, Cyprus, Anis T. Fuleihan began playing piano at the age of four. Fuleihan claimed there had been no other musicians in his family except a “amateur lute player of some distinction” on his mother’s line of the family tree. An unknown local police bandleade