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

  From Background to Foreground in Boston's Arabic Music Scene: Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Maalouf Rahwan, and Matilda Dada Stephens Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Maalouf Rahwan, and Matilda Dada Stephens are credited as the chorus/background singers on on Anton Abdelahad's   Middle East Fantasy   LP.  Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. Often, through no fault of their own, women who clearly have contributed to and made history of their own are excluded from conversations about music making and larger historical narratives. This is a case where literally the identities of the women in a picture only appear in the original source, but vanished from every single secondary source that has reproduced the photograph. In almost all references we’ve seen about Boston-born, Arab American musician Anton “Tony” Abdelahad , we inevitably come across a photograph taken, at some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s, of ten people (seven men, three women) posing inside a recording studio. The ph

  Laurice Peters: From the Derbecki Ensemble to the Queen of Cleveland's Arab American Music Scene Laurice Peters circa 1960. From The Derbecki Ensemble's Hafli: Echos of the Middle East (1960) In the recorded Arab American music scene in the Midwest, Detroit remained unmatched since Albert Rashid first established Al-Chark Records there before relocating his record operation to Manhattan and then Brooklyn, New York. We knew very little about Cleveland’s Arab American music culture until November, 2018, when we found several 33 1/3 LPs in the estate collection of Lucille Joseph Harris here in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Lucille, or Lucy, as she was better known was one of nine the children born to Shikralla Joseph and Mary Skaff Joseph in 1922. The Josephs had a history of initially working as peddlers and then they opened and operate a small grocery store not far from the family residence at 821 Windsor Street. One of the reasons Lucy’s estate contained so few Arabic records may b

  Mohammed El-Akkad:  King of the Kanun Press photo of Mohammed El-Akkad from May 9, 1985 performance at Northeastern University. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Without question Nadha musicians influenced the first generation of Arab American musicians to record in the United States, but few early or middle period musicians can claim to be a direct descendent of a Nadha musician. Mohammed Yousri Moustafa El-Akkad became one of few mahjari musicians who could lay claim this lineage. His grandfather was the Egyptian kanun player Mohamed Eff. Al-Aqqad (1850-1931) and he was born November 27, 1911 in Egypt. The music of the elder Al-Aqqad had been captured on Baidaphon recordings and he taught his grandson to play the kanun. The elder Al-Aqqad played alongside Yusef al-Manyalawi, Abdul Hay Hilmy, Salama Higazi, and other well-known musicians. According to Raphael Cormak, Sami al-Shawa, Mohammed al-Qasabji, and the elder Mohammed el-Aqqad were part of a group that backed Oum Kal

  Virginia Atter: A Television Personality with a Little-Known, Short-lived Music Recording Career Virginia "Ginny" Atter. Courtesy of News4Jax.com In 1949, after Columbia Records forever changed recording technology with the introduction of LP, microgrove, and vinyl technologies, RCA-Victor introduced the vinyl 45-RPM disc.  Known for its relatively small size (7"), enlarged center hole (1.5") ,and light weight, it became symbolic of 1950s popular singles as 78-RPM discs were on the way out. Several Arab American singers and musicians of the late-78-RPM era, never recorded on shellac because the format itself was a dying breed. While people like Hanan , Fadwa Abeid , Kahraman , Paul Anka, Mohammed el-Bakkar , and Lila Stephan and a few others managed to release records on 78 and 33 ⅓ or 45, others like Nick Anthony and Dick Dale seem to have never recorded on 78 and only on 33 ⅓ or 45. One such musician was unknown to us at the time we officially launched Midwest