Najeeba Morad Karam: Daughter of the Mahrajan




Najeeba Morad

(Singer, musician)


 Publicity photo for Najeeba Morad Karam that also appeared on Morad Records, The Caravan, 14 February 1954. Newspapers.com

Mary Najeeba (Najeebe/Nageeba) Morad Karam (1911-2004) was born Mary Morad to immigrants Nakhli/Michael and Nazera Morad on June 28, 1911 in New York City. Nakhli had been a musician and played with an Egyptian troupe. He claimed to have been influenced by Sheik Salama al Higazi. Within two years of her birth, her parents moved to Boston which had the second largest Syrian-Lebanese community in the United States at the time. The Morads immigrated to the United States in 1909 from Mradiyeh, Lebanon, as the legal system in the United States vacillated on the question of whether Syrian Lebanese immigrants could become naturalized US citizens. Mary was the eldest of fourteen children. Her parents like many entrepreneurial families from the Middle East operated a grocery store by 1920 and a laundry by 1930. By the time she was twenty, Mary, with several of her siblings, worked at a shoe factory. Within three years, however, her life would change.

In April 1933, the Syrian American Club of Boston held its 20th Anniversary celebration at the Municipal Building on Shawmut Avenue and West Brookline Street. According to the news report, “The music part of the program would be furnished by the following artists: Miss Najeeba Morad, Sam H. Attaya, Midhat Serbagi, vocal soloists, and Mitry Abdelahad, Nicholas Najjai, Louis Morad, and Earl Chamberline, instrumentalists.” Mary also opened the celebration by singing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and was dubbed “the Syrian Nightingale” by the club’s president. Mary began to officially use her Arabic first name, Najeeba, around this time. Louis, a violinist also on the program, was her younger brother and often continued to play with Najeeba for much of her career.

In the 1940 Census, Mary still lived with her parents and siblings but appeared as Najeeba. The Census also noted that she had one year of high school completed. Najeeba would soon return to school to earn her high school diploma.

During World War II, Najeeba Morad recorded a number of singles on Petro Trabulsy's Petrophon Record label. Included among these cuts was the patriotic tune "Long Live Uncle Sam" or "Fal-yahya Uncle Sam."


"Long Live Uncle Sam" was recorded by Najeeba Morad during WWII.
https://youtu.be/MDhAPoCpLNg

It is unclear whether Najeeba or one of her family members started the Morad Record label. Pressings and sides of Morad Records are limited, most included two black drawn birds, four star (two on either side of the spindle hole) and Nejeeba’s publicity photograph at the top center. Those records that usually show up among 78 RPM Arabic or Arab American record collectors are # 202A-B LAMA AKAWAYET, #203 AL BADER LAMA ZAR, #204A-B YA WARED NASSEM/ NASSAHTAK, and #206A-B JAWAL YA GANNAM.


Morad Records #202A-B, LAMA ANKAWYET. From the collection of Richard M. Breaux.  https://soundcloud.com/profbro/najeeba-morad-202-a-b


Nejeeba Morad married Toufic M. Karam in 1952, but continued to perform sometimes at a break-neck pace. Within a year of her marriage, she was back on stage in August 1953 when she performed at New Haven Mahrajan along with Mohammed El Bakkar, Fadwa Abed, Philip Solomon, and John Nazarian. Within months she headlined at the American Legion Post 1659 building fundraiser in Buffalo. Others on the program included Russell Bunai, Philip Solomon, Mike Hamway, Joe Budway, Mohammed El-Bakkar, and Hakil Karam. By October 1953, Najeeba cancelled a number of shows when her mother suffered a heart attack and died. She resumed performing at hafli and mahjaran after hafli and mahjaran until August 1954 when her pregnancy prevented her from keeping a number of engagements including the Lebanon League of Progress mahrajan in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Najeeba Morad Karam, 1944. Courtesy of Ad-Deleel. LOC.


Called “the Daughter of the Mahrajan,” by the Arab American press, when the Syrian Orthodox Church held its 10th convention in August 1955, Najeeba joined the group a number of musicians she toured with regularly including: Anton Abdelahad, Russell Bunai, Philip Solomon, Joe Budway, and Antoun Tawa. She worked with the same group a few days later at the Pawtucket Rhode Island Labor Day hafli. Publicity for the event reminded potential attendees, “Najeeba Morad Karam, an ever-popular favorite of Mahrajan, and star of many Mahajan’s of the past, will return to thrill crowds again this year.” Several other concerts and program booked Najeeba over the next several months.

At the much advertised hafli for Emergency Flood Relief, Nejeeba, Jamili Matouk, Agnes Hoffar, and Carol Gorra performed as the only women among a host of male performers. Life continued on with gigs at places like The Sheik Restaurant and The Cedars of Lebanon Restaurant and at orthodox, Melkite, or Maronite cultures. Najeeba and her friends performed up and down the east coast of the United States. This routine existed and persisted through the 1960s when, for instance, she teamed up with Anton Abdelahad, Fred Elias, and Antoun “Tony” Tawa for the annual hafla at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church Society in Boston. Never one to slight smaller communities she’d sometimes agree to be the only featured performer at St. Moura’s Ladies Society annual fundraising halfa.

Najeeba Morad Karam listed first on the Hafli Ad, 23 February 1956, The Caravan. Newspapers.com

Nejeeba performed regularly through about 1988 before she retired to her home in Buffalo, New York. She and Toufic settled there in 1953 and when home she attended St. John Maron Church in Williamsville, where she joined the Altar & Rosary Society.

Unlike some Arab American performers who had brief, unknown, or little-known careers, when Nejeeba Morad Karam died in 2004, the family and the Buffalo newspaper celebrated the singing career this "Daughter of the Hafli."


Richard M. Breaux

© Midwest Mahjar
Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA La Crosse, WI, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alexander Maloof: Guardian and Protector of Syrian Music in America

Image
Alexander R. Maloof (1884-1956)  This photograph of Alexander Maloof appeared in his 1924 Oriental Piano Music by Alexander Maloof: Syrian Popular Folk Songs From Richard M. Breaux collection. One of the most prolific and versatile composers, producers, orchestra leaders, and business owners in the first five decades of the twentieth century was Alexander R. Maloof. Collectors of 78 rpm records have written quite a bit about Maloof. His 78 rpm records are still highly sought after. Much of what has been published about Maloof’s personal and professional life is filled with contradictions about birthdate, death date, and place of death, but it’s our hope to shed some light on the complex life of this father of Arab American music. Depending on what sources one consults, Alexander Maloof was either born in 23 January 1884 or 1885, the second of six children to Abraham and Hanna Maloof in Zahlé, Greater Syria (now Lebanon). The Maloofs immigrated to the Unite
Read more

Albert Rashid: Rashid Sales Company, Al-Chark /the Orient and the Largest Selection of Arabic Records in the United States

Image
Albert Rashid A young Albert Rashid. Southeastern High School, The Aryan Yearbook, 1930, p.61. Courtesy of Ancestry.com  Depending on whether you’re an old timer who purchased your 78 RPM Arabic music discs via mail order in the 1930s from Detroit or you visited one of the brick and mortar locations of Rashid Sales Company on E. 28 th Street in Manhattan or the 191 Atlantic Avenue site in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, or 155 Court Street store in the 1990s and 2000s, Albert Rashid became known for one of three things – Arabic-language film and soundtrack distribution, his Al-Chark or Orient Record label, or his world famous record and music store Rashid Sales Company. By World War II’s end, in Brooklyn, New York, Rashid’s Al-Chark label and Fred Alam’s Alamphon engaged in a friendly but heated competition that rivaled that of Alexander Maloof’ s Washington Street-based Maloof Records  and Albert J. Macksoud’s records in the 1920s. Based on which sources o
Read more

The Many Facets of Louis Wardiny

Image
Elias Louis Nassour Wardiny (Oud, Singer, Producer, Owner) This lone image of Louis Wardini, 6 September, 1935, Indianapolis Star . Louis Nassour Wardiny  (sometimes Ilyas Wardini) was born 5 March 1894 in Beirut, Greater Syria (today Lebanon) to Nassour and Clemence Wardini . Some documents suggest he immigrated to the United States around 1904 with his family and, for part of his life, lived in Little Syria in Lower Manhattan. Other documents mark his arrival in April 1913, coming to the US from Beirut to La Harve and then New York City. Immigration documents note the change of name from Elias to Louis and give his occupation as both bookkeeper and singer at various points. In 1917, when the Victor Talking Machine Company still expressed interest in Arab recording artists, Wardiny debuted with 12 sides on six records. While Arab immigrant market clambered to hear more from Wardiny, Victor executives soon shifted direction away from its Arabic and Greek immigrant
Read more

The Incomparable Kahraman and Naif Agby - The Sun and The Planets

Image
Kahraman and Naif Agby  Olga "Kahraman" Agby, 17 April 1958, Caravan. Naif Agby, El Debke; author's collection. The 78-RPM era overlapped with the first two waves of Arab immigrants to the United States. The first was roughly 1880 to 1944 and the second spanned approximately from 1944 to 1966. While we can situate a few of the musicians on Arab and Arab American 78 rpm records to the first wave, most first wave musicians enjoyed careers that encompassed both eras. Still others, like Sana and Amer Khadaj , Odette Kaddo , Hanaan , and Naif Agby and Kahraman, who recorded on Alamphon, Orient Records, Sun Records, and Alkawakeb, clearly make up the second wave. It is remarkable, although not surprising, that most of these musicians not only knew each other, but performed together live and on record.   Nayeh Ejbeh or Naif Agby was born in Ehden, Greater Syria (now Lebanon) to Wadah Yamin and Joseph Ejbeh on either 22 June or 27 December 1920. He bega
Read more

Mohamed Said ZainEldeen: Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor

Image
Mohamed Said ZainEldeen:  Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor Mohamed Said ZainEldeen. Photo Courtesy of Richard Z.  There are several early-period Arab American musicians for whom we have so little information we can hardly compose a narrative that provides anything other than the most basic biographical information. Walim Kamel and Zakia Agob are among them. For others, we have slightly more, but still incomplete information.  The tenor   M. ZainEldeen   stands out as one.   We've long had one M. ZainEldeen 78 RPM record and most recently, after we undertook piecing together scraps of his biographical information, we acquired another. As usual, we scoured over immigration documents, U.S. Census data, city directories, and three-quarters of the way through, we located and corresponded with surviving relatives - here's what we found.  Mohamed ZainEldeen was born 1 November 1892 in Homs, Syria. Originally, his name was Zain E
Read more

Fadwa Abeid: An Arab American Singer Finds a More Lucrative Career in the Arab World

Image
Fadwa Abeid or Fadwa Abed Fadwa Abed in 1954 at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Fordson Yearbook (1954), 144. Courtesy of Ancestry.com  Since we launched Midwest Mahjar, rare has been the opportunity to speak to any of the artists who performed during the 78 RPM era. Most are no longer with us. We've communicated with the children of some musicians. Family members we've managed to track down include the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of 78-era Arab American musicians. "Fadwa Obeid" is on a Wiki-list of living Lebanese women singers, but with no birthdate or link to additional information. An Arabic-language Wikipedia entry offers information about the height of her career in the 1970s and makes vague reference to her retirement, but says nothing of her early life, early career, or life in retirement.  Imagine our surprise when researching Arab American singer Fadwa Abeid, we located contact information for her.     F
Read more

Hanan: “Don’t Miss Her Wherever She Will Be!!!”

Image
Hanan/ Hanaan (Jeanette Hayek Harouni) Hanan/Hanaan,  Caravan 12 January 1956. Courtesy of Newspapers.com   Only a handful of Arab or Arab American singers were known and are remembered by a single name. There was Asmahan, Karawan, Kahraman , and, of course – Hanan or Hanaan !            Hanaan or Hanan was born Jeanette Nehme Hayek on 8 November 1929 in Beirut, Lebanon. She was one of five children born to Jacob Hayek and Wadiha Atik Hayek. Ironically, the same year Jeanette’s birth the first Lebanese film, The Adventures of Mabrouk , was released. Jeanette displayed the talents of an actor and singer early on and received classical Arabic music training. Jeanette first traveled to Brazil in 1947 and again in 1948 to perform in concert with Wadih Saffi. Jeanette's mother accompanied her on the trip.  Compare and contrast two of Hanan's four identity documents for Brazil. One gives her birth year as 1922 and the other, the more
Read more

“PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aides Palestinian Refugees

Image
  “PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aided Palestinian Refugees Alamphon Record with Albert Joseph dealer/seller stamp. Courtesy of Frank J. Dalton. Back in November 2020, we received a generous donation of about ninety 78-rpm Arabic records from retired dentist Joe Corey, who grew up in West Virginia. Mr. Corey contacted us because his friend, fellow church member, and labor lawyer, David Khorey, came across some of our Arab American musician profiles featured on the Arab America news website. Over dinner, and pleasant discussion about Arab American history, David asked me, “Do you know how people got their records?”   I replied, “Some people ordered records from a catalogue and had them shipped from New York. Also, dealers likely sold records as vendors at regional SOYO meetings, mahrajan, hafla, and regional Syrian-Lebanese club conventions.” He then recalled a well-known vendor from his youth in western Pennsylvania who dressed in t
Read more

Odette Kaddo: Arab music, it gives me Life!

Image
Odette Kaddo Odette Kaddo, 1956. From 23 May 1957, The Caravan.   One of the major differences between first wave and second wave Arab immigrant musicians to the United States is the enormous amount of press coverage Arab expressive culture received in the Arab American press during and after World War II. This is the case for both Arab-language and English-language newspapers targeted at readers of Arab descent. Careful study of Al-Hoda newspaper in the 1910s and 1920s and The Syrian World in the 1920s and 1930s turned up very little information about Arab or Arab American record labels and musicians during this era.  Similar examination of the Arab American press during and after World War II yielded exponentially more about the haflas, mahrajans, phonograph record labels, and musicians popularly known in Arab American communities across the United States. The growth and technological developments in recorded sound after WWII meant that second-wave Ar
Read more