Joe Catton: A Kanun and Oud Player Links Two Worlds – The Arabic-language Hafla Scene and Sephardic Jewish life in Brooklyn
Joe Catton: A Kanun and Oud Player Links Two Worlds –
The Arabic-language Hafla Scene and Sephardic Jewish life in Brooklyn
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| Joseph Catton, 1958. |
A few of our most recent blog posts have explored the lives of Arabic and Hebrew-speaking Jewish immigrants who left Aleppo, Damascus, and/or Alexandria and immigrated to the United States in the early twentieth century. We have included Moses Cohen, Mayer Murad, and Nessim Murad among those musicians we have written profiles for, and Hakki Obadia and Shehadi Ashear as musicians we’ve yet to write about in any biographical detail. Arabic-speaking Jews in Brooklyn lived as a minority within a minority. The vast majority of Syrians immigrants to the United States in the first half of the twentieth century identified as Christian - Orthodox, Melkite, or Maronite. Some were even Presbyterian. Small numbers identified as Muslims and still others were Jews.
Depending on the sources one consults, Syrian Jewish immigrants began coming to New York and New Jersey in the 1890s or first decade of the twentieth century, especially between 1906 and 1909. Escaping conscription in the Ottoman military and no longer protected under their centuries-old dhimmi status, their numbers reportedly reached 4000 to 5000 by 1918.
A few months ago, I exchanged direct messages with Moses Cohen's great grandson. Too young to have met his great grandfather, much of what we shared came as a surprise to Joseph. Our fairly recent post about Cohen prompted Joseph to inquire about another relative - an oud and kanun player.
"Perhaps you've heard of my maternal grandfather?" Joseph inquired. "Joseph Catton?"
"Holy smokes!!!" I shot back. "That's your other grandfather?"
I believed the path ended there. Joseph could not tell me much else. With no leads, I sat on this profile like others I have yet to post. Months later I happened upon the work of Sarina Roffe.
Within days, there I was speaking with two of Joseph Catton's children via mobile phone.
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| Concert Flyer featuring Joe Catton, Jalil Azzouz, Antoine Hage, Lila Stephen, and others.. Courtesy of Harry C. and Rachel A. |
As is part of my usual routine I shared what I had researched and written with the musician's family and asked them to correct my mistakes, inaccuracies, or information I just got wrong. Any remaining misinformation in this post is mine to claim. Here's what I understand...
Joseph H. Catton was born in New York on 25 December 1912, the third of four children born to Harry and Sarah Catton both immigrants from Aleppo, Syria. The Cattons trace their ancestry to the Sephardic Jews persecuted and chased out of Spain under threat of death during the 15th century. Harry traveled to New York in 1907 and Sarah followed with their children Rachel and Moses in 1909. Both years marked the largest influx of Halabi and Shami Jews from the Near East to the United States. In fact, by 1910, over one million Jews lived in New York. Most of these relocated and fled from Germany and the Pale of Settlement, some, approximately 2,000 or so, were SWANA. A significant proportion of Arabic-speaking Jewish immigrants eventually made their way to Brooklyn, New York, but some, like the Cattons, first put down roots in New Jersey. Whether Harry Catton received assistance from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society remains unclear. After settling in New Jersey, the Cattons had Samuel, born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and then Joseph and Isaac born in, some records say, New York. The family first resided at 2231 Atlantic Avenue and around 1917, the family moved to 2403 Pacific Avenue both in Atlantic City, New Jersey. By the same year a pioneering group of Arabic-speaking immigrants who identified as Christian like Rev. George Aziz, Constantine Souss, Alexander Maloof, and Louis Wardiny, Muslims like Mohamed Zaineldeen, and Jews like Shehadi Ashear and Moses Cohen recorded sides for Columbia and/or Victor. Columbia even recorded the first Arabic-language woman singer to put voice to shellac in the United States – Zakia Agob. While they lived in Atlantic City, Harry Catton labored as a retail salesman, his oldest daughter Rachel also worked as a sales person, and a roomer resided at this address as well.
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| Harry Catton & family listed in the 1915 New Jersey Census. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Congressional passage of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, as many see it, took aim at Jewish immigrants and Southern and Eastern European immigrants. Using population proportions and numbers from 1910, the Emergency Quota Act sought to limit immigrants from certain countries with preferences in favor of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Modified and more restrictive legislation appeared in the form 1924 Immigration Act adjusting the baseline for proportional measurement to 1890. Legislators adjusted the National Origins Formula again in 1927 with 1920 as base measure.
Meanwhile, the entire Catton family, minus Rachel, moved to 6513 20th Avenue, Brooklyn in 1925. It was the same year Syrian Jews who had opened the Magen David Congregation Synagogue in 1921, completed the school extension in the adjoining lot. Harry and his oldest son Morris worked in a linen factory. Sam, Joseph, and Isaac attended Magen David Hebrew School; they soon joined their father and older brother, but then Morris and Sam began selling infant wear. The majority of the Catton’s neighbors were no longer Syrian Jews by 1930, but Yiddish-speaking Russian Jewish immigrants. Refugees, escapees, and their Russian and US-born children resettled in Bensonhurst. Perhaps Sam and Joseph Catton developed their interest in the preservation of Hebrew poetry and music because one of their neighbors was a cantor at a nearby synagogue, Morris Edelman, and one of their teachers at Magen David school was Rabbi Matloub Abadi (b. 1891-1970), a descendant of Aleppo’s most noted scholars of liturgical poetry or pizmonim, H. Mordecai Abadi. The Aleppo-born poet, rabbi, and cantor Moses Ashear (b. 1878-1940), who arrived in the United States in 1912, played an equally valuable role in the preservation of Jewish liturgical music retention and preservation in 1920s Brooklyn in Joseph Catton's youth. Around this time, Joseph Catton taught himself how to play oud and kanun.
The 1920s and 1930s marked a period of increased assimilation, Americanization, and concern among some Syrian Jews that people in their community married converts or non-Jews leading Rabbi Jacob S. Kassim (b. 1900 - 1994) to issue a takanah or “takkanah.” According to Sarina Roffe, this was adopted and adapted from similar edict issued in Argentina based on concern that insincere Christians converted to Judaism for the expressed purpose of marrying Jewish men or women. Argentina came to have the largest Jewish community in South America. Back in Brooklyn, Morris Catton married Bessie Haddad on 12 March 1931, Sam Catton married Rae Saff in 1937 and the two had children.
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| Joe Catton in New Guinea. Courtesy of Harry C. |
Few people know that the United States, as part of the Allied Forces, engaged in a military campaign in New Guinea. With the Japanese invasion of both the territories of New Guinea and Popau, the United States stationed thousands of troops in New Guinea. Estimates suggest some 340,0000 US vets served New Guinea, the longest of World War II. Australian and United State forces teamed up to defeat the Japanese. Although details are scarce, Joe Catton served in New Guinea for three years; Sam for 6 months, both in the anti-aircraft division. On his World War II draft registration card, Joseph listed his employer as Isaac Shalom, the Aleppo-born linens and curtains merchant who immigrated to the United States in 1905 or 1907
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| World War I draft card for Joseph Catton. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
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| Joseph Catton and Pauline Scweky wed in 1950. Courtesy of Harry C. |
After time in the South Pacific, Joe returned to Brooklyn and married Pauline Schweky on 1 March 1950 and continued to work with Sam. Joseph and Pauline eventually had four children - one son and three daughters - Sarah, Esther, Rachel, and Harry. For a time, the Catton brothers continued in the wholesale clothing industry specializing in infant apparel. Sam negotiated a deal with Disney to use their licensed characters on certain clothes which turned out to be a lucrative idea for all involved. Both Catton brothers became increasingly active in the Syrian Jewish/ Sephardic community in Brooklyn and New Jersey and the preservation of Hebrew song-poems passed down for generations. Known as a culturally and socially close-knit community, Syrian Jews interacted with Ashkenazi Jews, Arab Christians, Arab Druze, and Arab Muslims to conduct daily business and play music, but largely married other Syrian Jews and advocated for rigid restrictions in accepting converts. Joe’s musical friendships and collaborations reflect complex solidarities between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the recording of Arabic-language music, Hebrew-language music, and African Americans increasingly influenced by Middle Eastern, North African, and West African musical traditions and styles.
The works of professors Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance Among Syrian Jews, and Mark L. Kligman, Maqan and Liturgy: Ritual, Music, and Aesthetics of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, point to the hybridity and synthesis of Syrian-Jewish musical and liturgical traditions with their use of mostly Arab, some Turkish and few American tunes. Pizmon could be derived from popular Arabic songs by Zaki Murad, Farid Al-Atrash, Mohammed Abdul Wahad, etc. and refashioned into Syrian Jewish liturgy. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, musicians like Joseph Catton, Samuel Catton, Jerusalem-born cantor Rabbi Raphael Yair Elnadav, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, Ralph S. Tawil, Yaakob Ezra Hamaoui, Abraham Ashear, Jack Hanon, hazzan Isaac J. Cabbasso, and others met on Monday evenings to collaborate and formed the Red Pizmonim Book Committee.
A few of Joseph Catton's friends and collaborators had their own complicated ties to recorded music and song. Among these, Rabbi Raphael Yair Elnadav emerged from his childhood in Jerusalem in the 1920s, studied at the Conservatory Arzi Israel, and served as a huzzan in Tel Aviv in the 1950s. He immigrated to Havana, Cuba, visited the United States on a number of occasions, while simultaneously fulfilling his role at the Congregational Ohel Moed Sephardic synagogue. He followed this up with nearly a twenty-one year career as huzzan at Shaare Zion Syrian Sephardic Synagogue in Brooklyn. In 1961, he recorded a 15-track LP of Ladino Folk Songs on the Collectors Guild label. Rabbi Elnadav went on to influence hazzan Yehiel Nahari of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue of Deal, New Jersey, and hazzan Isaac J. Cabbasso of Congregation Beth Torah in Brooklyn. According to some sources, Cabbasso has contributed some 200 recordings of pizmonim to the Sephardic Pizmonim Project.
Gigs on the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania hafla scene became the essence of Joe Catton's music career. At the farewell party for world-renowned violinist Sami el Shawwa, in November 1954, Catton accompanied Fadwa Abeid, Little Sami Jourdak, Emil Kasses, Toufic Moubaid, and Jamili Matouk in performances. Also present at the event were editors of The Caravan, As-Sameer, and Miraat-al-Gharb. In March 1956, Joe Catton teamed up with Tony Abdelahad and Ron Kirby to perform at a Bar Mitzvah in Philadelphia. A late March snowstorm made the trip home to Boston for Abdelahad and Kirby particularly taxing. Later that year in November, when Sabah and her husband Anwar Mansy toured the United States Joe played with the line-up of Mohammed El-Bakkar, Naim Karacand, Mike Hamway, Joe Budway, and Hakki Obadia at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn. Catton closed out the year with an array of headlining singers and accompanists at the Aleppian Foundation’s Gala on 16 December 1956. Others on the bill that night included Hanan, Tony Abdelahad, Lila Stephan, Joe Budway, Naim Karacand, Mike & George Hamway, Abe Messadi, George & Henry Raad, Eddie Esso, and Eddie Kochak. Catton also played with Antoine Hage and Jalil Azzouz.
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| Joe Catton's photo rarely appeared in the newspapers but this rare poster ad for Saint Nick's Men's Ass'n dance included a photo. Caravan 23 October 1958. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Between 1957 and 1958 Joe Catton could be found among the various accompanists at the many hafla and banquets in Brooklyn’s Arabic-speaking communities. The Holy Name Society of the Virgin Mary Church booked Elie Baida, Lila Stephan, and Eddie Kochak for their annual hafla and dance also booking Louis Kawam, Albert Karam, Abe Messadi, and Naim Karacand on 3 February 1957. Catton also accompanied Mohammed El-Bakkar at the Green Grove Manor in Long Branch, New Jersey in the summer of 1957. The following year, in June 1958, Joe Catton, Ray Bailoney & John Hyder, and Hakki Obadia all endorsed, supported, and performed at the Danny Thomas ALSAC Banquet in Brooklyn featuring Hanan, Karawan, Kahraman, Nick Anthony & the Firestars, Eddie Kochak, Jack Ghanaim, and others. Approximately 2000 people attended the fundraiser at the Saint George Hotel for Saint Jude Hospital and raised over $30,000. Towards the year’s end, the Saint Nicholas Men’s Association sponsored its Annual Hafla 7 Dance with Elie Baida, Kahraman, Philip Solomon, Joe Budway, and Joe Catton on November 9, 1958. Crowds once more packed the Hotel Saint George to hear some of Syrian and Lebanese America’s best.
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| Joe Catton in the ensemble when Sabah toured the United States and visited Brooklyn. Caravan, 1 November 1956. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
One of the year’s high points came September-November 1958 when Djamal Aslan recorded the fourteen tracks that appeared on his LP Lebanon: Her Hearts, Her Sounds on Twentieth Century Fox album in 1959. Musicians on the album included friends old and new: Naim Karacand on violin, Hakki Obadia on violin, Louis Kawam on oud, cellist Joseph Sugar, Ahmed Abdul Malik on bass, Karl Karol on flute and clarinet, Kahim Sayeg on Nye, Eddie Kochak on percussion, Mike Hamway on derbeke, and Joe Catton on kanun. Well-known illustrator Irv Docktor designed and created the album’s cover. While some sources give the release date as 1960, first mention of the album appeared in the Caravan newspaper in 1958. By 1959, an ad for the album notes its production emerged as a collaboration between Djamal Aslan’s Cinara-Phone label located at 366 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and Twentieth Century Fox. Sold widely in Brooklyn, interested music fans could purchase the LP at Alfred Alam’s Alamphon Records store, then located at 182 Atlantic Avenue or at Albert Rashid’s Rashid Sales at 191 Atlantic Avenue.
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| Joe Catton played kanun on Djamal Aslan's Lebanon: Her Heart, Her Sounds. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. https://youtu.be/uwyTBRNjVj0 |
According to Joseph Catton’s daughter, not only did Catton play on Djamal Aslan’s album but he is one of at least two kanun players on Mohammed El-Bakkar’s Port Said. Newspaper reports confirm that Joe Catton and Hakki Obadia were among those who appeared on Mohammed El-Bakkar’s Port Said, Sultan of Baghdad, and Music of the African Arab – all on Sidney Frey’s Audio Fidelity label.
Although Joe became the family musician, it was Sam in 1970 who established the Sephardic Heritage Foundation for the preservation of Sephardic Jewish cultural traditions, prayer, and music. Several of Sam’s projects resulted in published books documenting daily and holiday prayer in the tradition of Aram Soba and pizmonim, a compilation of songs and poems reaching back over 200 years. Around 1978, Joe co-composed, with David E. Cohen and Vita Israel, a number of songs recorded along with an ensemble of Ezra Hazen, Hakki Obadia, Armand Teboul, Lebech Saldinger, and others to produce Pizmonim: Sephardic-Hebrew Songs of the Middle East. The project was digitally remastered and translated in 2000. Joe also appeared on a rare 1985 release vinyl LP Pizmon: Syrian-Jewish Religious and Social Song beside Issac Cabasso, Louis Massry, David Tawil, Josef Saff, Ezra Ashkenazi and others. The 1985 Meadowlark Records production included Kay K. Shelemay.
The 1980s found the Cattons in the news for reasons other than music preservation. Turns out in 1984, Harry Catton purchased a 1985 Porsche from Braham Cadillac in Miami but the family’s State Farm Insurance policy contained a New Jersey address only. When thieves stole the Porsche out of the Catton’s New Jersey driveway, State Farm refused to pay on an automobile not registered in the state of New Jersey. Citing statute NJS 17:30E-1c, the State refused the claim, it took the Cattons filing a lawsuit to be compensated for their loss. While the case involved Harry's car, it was Joseph and Pauline who were named as the case's plaintiffs.
The 1970s recording of Pizmonim: Sephardic-Hebrew Songs of the Middle East saw release of a remastered CD in 2000 with the resurgence of preserving the music of Middle Eastern Americans and former immigrants and refugees of the Ottoman Empire during the early twentieth century. Now considered musical veterans of the golden age of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean music in the United States, a generation has passed on and are remembered by few or faded into obscurity. Pauline Catton passed on 28 November 2003, Joe Catton died in Long Branch, New Jersey on 14 December 2004; Sam Catton died 5 February 2006.
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| Joe Catton and his kanun. Courtesy of Harry C. |
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| Joe Catton with oud. Photo courtesy of Sarah T. |
Special Thanks to Joseph T., Judah C., Harry C., Sarah T., and Sarina R.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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