Jack Ghanaim: An Oudist and Qanunist Embodies Musical Versatility
Jack Ghanaim: An Oudist and Qanunist Embodies Musical Versatility
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| "Jack Ghanaim," Caravan, 18 September 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
The Palestinian city of Ramallah stands in the West Bank just six miles to the north of Jerusalem. By the 19th century, Orthodox Christians, Melkites, Muslims, and even American missionaries associated with the Quakers called Ramallah home. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Ramallah became a part of the British mandate territories. Long before British occupation, Ramallah served as a cultural hub for musicians, visual artists, and the literati, this made Ramallah fertile soil for the BBC to plant the seeds for what eventually become The Palestine Broadcast Service in 1936. Radio antenna on top of homes in the 1930s could already pickup stations from Paris and other parts of Europe. Over the twentieth century, Ramallah was a part of the Ottoman Empire, British mandate territory, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. In Ramallah, not fully three years after it became mandate territory, Yacoub Saleh Ghanaim was born 8 February 1920.
Commonly known as Jacob or Jack, Ghanaim married Brooklyn-born Helen George around 1942 in Ramallah and the couple had their first child, Najwa, two years later. The Ghanaim’s also had Grace, Nuha, Maha, Rajah, and Saleh.
Like many second wave Arab immigrants, Jack Ghanaim arrived in the United States with thousands of other Palestinians who relocated to the United States following the rise of post-World War II Israel and what some call the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and others call Al-Nakba. His wife and their children were all natural-born citizens of the United States. This likely eased the stress of the naturalization process which itself came under congressional revision at the time.
Jack Ghanaim had to have been a qanun and oud player previous to his arrival in the States and he virtually hit the ground running when he arrived US in 1953 at thirty-three years old. He played gigs in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and Paterson, New Jersey, where a host of other Palestinians settled on Paterson’s south end in a neighborhood eventually dubbed “Little Ramallah.” Ghanaim settled in some thirty-two miles south of Paterson in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
One of Ghanaim’s first press-noted performances included the 36th annual Saint Nicholas Young Men’s Association hafla in November 1957. Featured musicians at this event included Hanan, Kahraman, Elia Baida, Eddie Kochak, Naim Karacand, Joe Budway, Mike & George Hamway, George & Henry Raad and Jack Ghanaim. According to one report, “Festivities got under way about 9:30 pm and ran almost without letup until 1am. The entertainment was very well received. There were spontaneous debkee [sic] rings which encircled the entire ballroom during the more-snappy Arabic songs.” Three months later, Jack Ghanaim appeared alongside Damascus-born Karawan, Philip Solomon, John Nazarian, and Charles Kahla at the Elk’s Auditorium hafla in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Curiously, or perhaps not, press reports pointed out that Ghanaim was among “artists recently” arrived in the United States. This was a bit of a stretch.
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| Ad for Jack Ghanaim, Caravan 30 June 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Most of Hanan's singles on Cleopatra Records that featured an oud or qanun were likely Jack Ghanaim. We know for certain that he appears on Cleopatra #819 A & B, "Wakef 'Ala Shar Baher" or "Standing on the Shore" along with Joe Budway, Hakki Obadia, and Naim Karacand. The same ensemble, including Jack Ghanaim on qanun, jams on Cleopatra #820 A & B, composed by Mohammed El-Bakkar and with lyrics written by Hanan's husband, Michel Harouni.
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Hanan sings on Cleopatra #820 A & B "Ahla Wsahla" written by Michel Harouni and composed by Mohammed El-Bakkar. Jack Ghanaim, Joe Budway, Hakki Obadia, and Naim Karacand made up the ensemble on this side. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. |
Fifty-six foreign-born people, Jack Ghanaim among them, entered the Somerset County Courthouse on April 16, 1959 and exited citizens of the United States. Italian, English, Hungarian Polish, Norwegian German, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Czech, Canadian immigrants made up the bulk of the group, Jacob Saleh Ghanaim was the only Palestinian and only Middle Easterner in this entire group.
The development of both 33 1/3 RPM and 45 RPM microgroove technology positions Jack Ghanaim at the intersection of two eras. While some Arab American musicians continued to record on 78 RPM for Alamphon, Arabphon, and Al-Chark, others like Mohammed El Bakkar, Hanan, Nick Anthony, Lila Stephan, and Eddie Kochak transitioned to recording on vinyl LPs. While it does not appear that he recorded any solo or lead projects in 1957, Ghanaim appeared on Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s pioneering Jazz Sahara along with Naim Karacand, Mike Hamway, Al Harewood, Bilal Abdurrahman, and Johnny Griffin. Ghanaim, of course, played the qanun accompaniment. Interestingly, a year later, when Abdul-Malik released East Meets West, he retained Karacand and Hamway, but replaced Ghanaim with Ahmed Yetman. This was not the end of Ghanaim’s recording career, however.
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| Jack Ghanaim played with Mike Hamway, Naim Karacand, Johnny Griffin, and other musicians on Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Jazz Sahara. https://youtu.be/1sEHc8bI2-A |
The year after the release of Abdul-Malik’s Jazz Sahara, Jack Ghanaim worked on several other projects. He appeared on Hanan & Her Ensembles 1959 The Arabian Nightingale LP and on Lila Stephan's Lila- A Thousand One Nights LP in 1960. Ghanaim is also credited with writing the “Sultan’s Delight” performed by a group called The Sheiks on a 45 RPM Sultan Records single where both it and its flip side were arranged by Arab American rock musician Nick Anthony. Of course, Nick Anthony both with his Starfires and solo released his own set of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s including “You’re Real Keen, Jelly Bean,” “My Baby’s Gone,” and “Sugar Baby.” One of Jack Ghanaim’s last recording projects reunited him with Hanan & Her Ensemble on their Music of Arabia album in 1967.
In addition to membership in Hanan’s LP Ensemble, Jack Ghanaim played Paterson’s Saint Ann’s Roman Catholic Church annual celebration in the summer of 1959 and the impressively larger Saint Nicholas Young Men’s Club annual entertainment and dance at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn that fall. The lineup at Saint Ann’s nearly mirrored that of Hanan and Her Ensemble. The Saint Nicholas event, however, starred Fadwa Abeid, Naim Karacand, Mohammed El Akkad, Philip Solomon, Anton Abdelahad, Eddie Kochak, with dancing by the Jamal Twins and Dahlana. Although the hafla and mahrajan circuit kept him busily traveling between New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, the Caravan announced the well-known musician had recently opened a grocery store at 647 W. 4th Street in Plainfield, New Jersey in December 1960. As we’ve noted with others, a 7:00am to 7:00pm job or business plus a music career remained a standard for middle period musicians.
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| Jack Ghanaim tried his hand a grocery store ownership for a short time, but is best remembered among many Arab Americans as an oudist and qanunist. Clipping from Caravan, December 22, 1960. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Professionally speaking, 1961 to 1963 were some of the busiest years in Jack Ghanaim’s life with increases in bookings and the selling of his grocery store & soda fountain. Brooklyn’s Aleppian Foundation Hafla in February held at the Hamilton House Casino headlined Kahraman, Eddie Kochak, the Hamways and Hakki Obadia. The same group of singers and musicians jammed at the Tayoun Restaurant in Philadelphia in the days leading up to July 4th and a smaller group including Ghanaim, Naim Karacand, Mike Hamway and Kahraman entertained the crowds at the Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church Hafla in Hempstead, New York. Just to the west, Ghanaim, Hakki Obadia, Sam Farkre, and Elias Abourjaily played the SOYO Hafla in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that fall.
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| Jack Ghanaim appeared at the 1959 Saint Nicholas Men's Club Hafli with a host of other Arab American musicians. Caravan 1 October 1959. Newspapers.com |
Some of Jack Ghanaim’s final documented performances took place in the middle-to-latter portion of the 1960s. To be sure, Naim Karacand, George & Mike Hamway, and Jack Ghanaim reunited to play at the Altar-Rosary Society of Saint Ann’s Byzantine Roman Catholic Church’s annual hafli. Months later, Amer Kadaj, Jack Ghanaim, Jalil Azzouz, and the dancer Azizeh provided entertainment for the Ramallah Men’s Society Club of New Jersey’s Social-Oriental Party in November, 1964. Within three years, a successful heart surgery meant fewer public performances, but the stress of traveling from gig to gig didn’t allow Jack to play as frequently; he did, however, perform on occasion. For instance, Jack joined the incomparable Kahraman, Hakki Obadiah, and John Hayder, and worked the 17th Annual hafla of Saint Mary’s Syrian Orthodox Church on 13 May 1967 near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. According to press reports that hafla had two primary purposes: 1) to raise money for the church building fund and 2) to “preserve the music and food of Syrian Lebanese cultural heritage.”
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| Jack Ghanaim (center with oud) plays at a Brooklyn bar mitzvah, 1970. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. |
Jack Ghanaim’s health had never fully been the same after the completion of his open-heart surgery. On September 3, 1971, Jacob S [Jack] Ghanaim died in South Plainfield, New Jersey. Ghanaim was not just an oudist and qanun player, he had worked in the sales department of Good Humor Co. and had unsuccessfully tried his hand at grocery store ownership. Two sons, four daughters, and a loving wife survived Ghanaim. Like many Arab American musicians who largely played almost exclusively as backup or ensemble instrumentalists, no mention of his musical career appeared in his official obituary. That we know, Ghanaim composed a few songs, played alongside a host of better-known musicians, but never fronted his own musical outfit; yet his notoriety as an expert qanunist among middle-period Arab American vocalists and musicians (not to mention in some Jazz circles) remains unquestionable as historians and ethnomusicologists rediscover the 1950s/1960s music scene that brought and handful of African American and Arab American musicians together for a brief period. For many, collaborations between African American musicians who were Ahmadiyya Muslim and Arab American musicians launched the beginnings of solidarities between African American and Palestinian struggles.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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