The Birth of Philly's Middle Eastern Music Scene: Ed Tayoun and His Arabian Orchestra

James and Edmond Tayoun, 1946. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Despite its relative proximity to Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s Little Syria, Philadelphia’s Syrian and Lebanese communities were much smaller and its music scene less recognized and less celebrated. Nevertheless, approximately 16,300 Syirans lived in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1907. More specifically, 700 Syrians lived in Philadelphia, 600 settled in Wilkes Barre, and 2300 resided in Pittsburgh at the same time. Its population notwithstanding, Philadelphia had one of the oldest Syrian communities in the United States.  Historians Linda K. Jacobs and Sarah M.A. Gualtieri have documented the presence of merchants, entertainers, and lecturers who travelled to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and remained in the city after the fair. Immigrants from Greater Syria founded Saint Maron Church by 1892, if not a few years earlier. Al-Hoda, the second and longest operating Arab American newspaper in the United States, was established in Philadelphia in 1898 before Naoum Morkarzel moved its office to New York City.

Philadelphia also emerged as the city associated with early recording technology. Philadelphia's Franklin Institute became one of the first to demonstrate Emile Berliner's gramophone in 1886. Within a year, the city gave birth to the American Phonograph Company. The Berliner Phonograph Company, too, had offices in Philadelphia. Across the river from Philadelphia in 1901, Eldridge Johnson created the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.

Ed Tayoun & his Arabian Orchestra cover for 45 RPM disc. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.

The origins of this rare 45 rpm record by Ed Tayoun and his Arabian Orchestra begins not in South Philly, however, but in Zgarta, Greater Syria (now Lebanon) and Dubuque, Iowa.  John Edmond Tayoun was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 1 April 1931 to Solomon Tayoun and Johanna Nora Mutter.  Sliman or Solomon, born in Zgarta in 1902, immigrated to the United States in 1910. Nora, although born to immigrant parents, Salem and Sadie Matter, in Dubuque, Iowa, on 8 January 1907, grew up in Lebanon and returned to the United States, passing through New York when she was about twelve. Solomon and Nora wed on 2 June 1929. He worked as a merchant, operated a coffee house, and then labored as a factory worker. The newly married couple had James in 1930, John Edmond in 1931, and Maryanne in 1934. They lived at 1013 Ellsworth Street, not far from Saint Maron Church at 931 Ellsworth, and in a mixed Italian American and Syrian immigrant neighborhood. Edmond and his brother attended Southeast Catholic School. By 1940, Solomon owned his own fruit stand.

World War II draft card for Solomon Tayoun. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

World War II turned Depression-era unemployment to work in military and military-adjacent industries. Some 350,000 residents of Philadelphia found employment doing related work. Solomon Tayoun worked in the New York Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, rather than the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In both,  US, British, and allied ships were built, repaired, or repurposed.

As the Tayoun children became adults, touring Arab American musicians from up and down the East Coast provided much of what constituted Philadelphia's Middle Eastern music scene. Thirteen eighteen Juniper Street housed the family of five in 1950. Both Solomon and Nora worked in machine factories and Edmond built truck bodies at the Budd Company plant. Jim Tayoun attended Villanova University but eventually graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1951. Jim edited and published The Lebanese American Journal and served time in the US Army. Somewhere along the way, likely in school, Edmond Tayoun's ’s interest in music blossomed. He started a small trio that included himself on oud with Norm Karam and Ed’s older brother Jim Tayoun on derbecki. The group played gigs hosted by organizations in Philly’s Syrian community including its events sponsored by the Cedars Bowling League of Philadelphia in 1956. Tony Abdelahad, Ronnie Kirby, and Joseph Catton played a private bar mitzvah in Philadelphia in March 1956, Virginia Atter made a promotional tour stop in October 1956, and Lila Stephan performed in Philadelphia in December of the same year. Hanan headlined at the Saint George Syrian Orthodox Church hafla in 1959 and Kahraman, Naim Karacand, and Mohammed El-Akkad entertained at the Saint George Syrian Orthodox Youth Organization convention in 1961. Meanwhile, the Tayouns moved back a half mile to their old neighborhood near 10th and Ellsworth. It was here in 1959 that the family opened a restaurant out of their home at 935 Ellsworth.

Early Middle East Restaurant menu from before 1969. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.

Nora Tayoun cooked meals at the restaurant and soon it became a common sight to see lines out the door. Solomon labored as a pastry chef and oversaw the dining area. Philadelphia officially had one its first Lebanese restaurant. Edmond, Jim, and one or two other musicians from the community packed in with their instruments to add the ambiance. Two other row-house restaurants followed in 1960 - "The Cedars of Lebanon" and "The Star." Neither would outlast The Middle East. With the success of business, by 1961, Solomon, Nora, James, and Edmond applied for a license under the name The Middle East Restaurant. Nora and Solomon now resided at 1318 Ritner Street. Edmond and his wife lived at 2542 South Ninth Street, and James at 8712 Ardleigh Street.

Philadelphia Daily New, 20 October 1961. Philadelphia Daily News. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Edmond Tayoun married Detroit-born Therese Trabulsy in March 1960. Therese worked at Philadelphia General Hospital although her father, Michael Trabulsy was a baked goods salesman and owner of Mike’s Market. Edmond and Therese eventually had seven children - Edmond, Jr., Annie, Dena, Michael, Joe, William, and Tommy. Over the years the children worked as wait staff, house band members, and bartenders at the Middle East.

Edmond and James hired Middle Eastern belly dancers to accompany their trio and they also hired professional musicians as customers wanted an experience that resembled that of the Arab, Greek, and Armenian club scene popular in New York City and Boston. Although a major city, Philadelphians and its law enforcement was not wholly ready for Middle Eastern night club culture. Police infamously raided the Middle East Restaurant’s 935 Ellsworth location when neighbors complained about the noise and the crowds. Solomon first hired belly dancers to perform on Tuesday and Thursday nights in 1961. Less than a year later, police, again, raided the restaurant and charged management and bellydancers with lewd behavior. Judge Ralph Dennis saw otherwise and after confirming the business had an entertainment license, dropped the charges. Just over one year later,  two plain clothes officers sat through music and dance performances and claimed to have seen enough. The charge?  Belly dancers violated decency laws. On June 26, 1963, Philadelphia police arrested Edmond Tayoun, James Tayoun, sixteen patrons, and two dancers - Susan Marsh, 21, and Geneva Decker, 27. Reportedly three emergency wagons and several patrol cars took everyone to the 22nd Street and Hunting Park precinct. Susan March was described as wearing “a black lace veil to preserve her modesty” and she and Geneva dawned “long opaque skirts” but had “bare midriffs.” Among eighteen arrested patron was a University of Pennsylvania Sociology professor, David E. Lavin and his wife, Margaret. Apparently, Professor Lavin punched one of the arresting officers and received an resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and an assault & battery charge. He posted $1000 bail. In the end, the ACLU took James and Edmond’s case. One of the restaurant’s dancers, Azeeza, performed for the court during the hearing to demonstrate there was no lewd dancing in the restaurant.  The judge discharged fifteen of those caught up in the incident of any wrongdoing. The case, however, circulated on the Associated Press for almost three days after the December 1964 hearing.

Ed Tayoun "Side 1" of 45 RPM. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/-c_UVBRXxtw

Ed Tayoun "Side 2" of 45 RPM. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/g_vAHIpvM2Q

Edmond, under the name Ed Tayoun, recorded at least two publicly released and sold vinyl projects. At some point, between 1961 and 1969, Ed Tayoun and His Arabian Orchestra released a 45 rpm record containing four songs - “Harem Dance,” “Taksim,” “Hava Nagilah,” and “Miserlou.” Philadelphia, turned Princeton, cartoonist Arnold Roth designed the record cover, which he adapted from advertisements he designed to promote the restaurant.  In 1977, Ed also appeared on a compilation album called A Night in the Middle East Volume 1. Ed performed the duet “Al Asfooreyeh” with Mona Liban. Armenian American musicians Ray Mirijanian, Hagop Tcherkezian, and Robert Marashlian, all contributed songs to the album. Ray Mirijanian subsequently recorded another two LP volumes, some on Middle East Records and others on Mirta (Mirijanian - Tayoun Records). Most cases, Jim Tayoun wrote the liner notes.

A Night in the Middle East, Volume 1, 1977. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/LtpLJIAhvRw

Demand for Lebanese food and entertainment inspired Edmond and James to move the Middle East Restaurant to a new location. The multi-level Old City location opened on 16 October 1969 at 126 Chestnut. While the new location had more space, with two-levels for the restaurant, the building had three additional floors to total five in all. Live music and belly dance kept regulars and newcomers entertained and the likes of Joe Budway, Djamal Aslan, Ray Mirijanian, Chick Ganimian, the Gomidas Oriental Band, and Edmond Joseph performed as featured musicians. Eddie Tayoun, Jr., and then William Tayoun, became the house drummers and their little brother Joseph started on riqq or tambourine. Customers continued to pack the new location but accessibility to automobile traffic, the willingness of taxi cabs to travel to various parts of the city, and the cost of parking negatively impacted some businesses. Ed Tayoun believed that some people were “staying closer to their offices during the day and settling for hot dogs because the streets were so clogged with traffic.”

Matchbooks from the Middle East Restaurant's two locations. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. 

One marketing strategy Ed and Jim Tayoun used to get more patrons into the restaurant were themed banquets. Drawing from the throngs of people visiting Philadelphia in recognition of the country’s bicentennial celebration, the Middle East and Lebanese American Cultural Society hosted a “Night of the 101” dinner in August 1976. It featured Lebanese, Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Turkish, and Israeli cuisine for 101 guests because there was no way the restaurant could accommodate 1001 guests to reflect the 1001 Arabian Nights-inspired theme. An added incentive to attend the $20 a head event was discounted parking and the opportunity to try kibbeh, krepa, chicken shawarma, stuffed grape leaves, moussaka, and baklava. 

Middle East Restaurant bicentennial ad, 8 June 1976, Philadelphia Inquirer. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

By the mid-1970s, Ed and Jim Tayoum introduced an amateur belly dance contest to drum up business, at the same time changes in the local and international political climate brought new attention to the family and the restaurant. Local newspapers covered lite-hearted entertainment at the restaurant as customers tried their hand at Middle Eastern dance. Ed  encouraged customers to try to imitate the professional dancers who worked at the Middle East and winners received small prizes for their efforts. Meanwhile, Jim Tayoun threw his hat into state and local politics. Jim served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from January 7, 1969 to November 30, 1970 and then as a Philadelphia City Council member from 1976 to 1984. Ed and Jim finally launched the Old Philadelphia Cabaret Theater, a live entertainment venue, above the Middle East Restaurant in 1979. It could reportedly hold 220 people at once. By 1983, the Third Annual Eastern Regional Belly Dancing Convention met in Philadelphia and the Middle East helped sponsor the event.

In 1978, local reporters sought out Ed and other Philadelphia Arab and Jewish business leaders to get comments about the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan to South Lebanon and fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces, the South Lebanon Army, and the PLO, ending with the United Nations Security Resolution 425. Of course, the Lebanese Civil War had erupted in 1975 and, at the time, there was no end in sight. United States President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachin Begin signed a peace treaty following the Camp David Accords. Interestingly, Philly’s Middle East Restaurant had become a site where local Arab Americans gather to talk politics about the old country, the region, and what this meant for people in the diaspora.

The Middle East Restaurant not only became a place filled with music, food, dance, laughter, and political banter, it was the target of frustration, anger, and misplaced rage. To be sure, Jim Tayoun recalled, “We got hell over the war between the Arabs and the Israelis. We got hell over trouble between Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Muslims. Now we get hell over Iran. The only time we did good was when Begin and Sadat made peace.” Times when either Arab or Israeli American clientele boycotted the restaurant the Tayouns saw decreases in revenue that reached twenty to thirty percent. There were even times, during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, when local toughs attempted to cause trouble in the restaurant because they presumed the Tayouns were Iranian. “Iran is not an Arab country,” Jim Tayoun had to clarify, “It’s Persian.” The Middle East employed “Italians, Greeks, Jordanians, Greeks, Egyptians,” Armenians and Iranians at various points. To be sure, one newspaper want ad noted the restaurants preferred waiters and busboys who could speak or understand Armenian, Arabic, Greek, or Turkish.

As the Middle East Restaurant entered its third decade the next generation of Tayouns assumed full ownership of the business. Nora Tayoun died in 1981, followed by Solomon in 1984. The lead cook became Romey Gussin who had assumed greater responsibility in the kitchen since 1976. The annual Memorial Day Street Fair, which allowed the larger community to see, smell, and taste a variety of foods from Old City businesses, moved to the 4th of July holiday in 1987. Local newspapers interviewed Ed, Jim, and Maryanne Tayoun and published stories about the Middle East’s lasting legacy and remarkable resilience. Bellying dancing at the Middle East, once the target of police raids, received headlining appreciation and celebration for the folk tradition it represented rather than derision.

Around 1990 or 1991, Ed and Jim Tayoun considered closing the Middle East Restaurant, as Jim found himself in political hot water. Jim was in his second term as a Philadelphia City Council member when he pleaded guilty to mail fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering charges. Jim was not new to trying to use his influence to sway political opinion nor was he new to being accused of fraud.  In 1967, Jim Tayoun offered to settle a dispute between the Transit Workers Union and the Philadelphia Transit Company with a free meal at the Middle East. The goal - to avert a transit strike. In 1970, GOP leaders in the city accused the family of fraud when they claimed the Tayouns used, but did not live at a residence in 183rd district at 1011 Ellsworth Street. This time, in 1991, Jim Tayoun ended up doing 40 months in prison. Instead of closing, Ed’s sons Joe and Michael Tayoun took over managing the restaurant. It remained a restaurant and music venue until it closed in 1997. The Nile Restaurant, owned by Michael and Joe Tayoun, also operated from around 1998 to 2000 at 120 Chestnut. It was a smaller venue but tried to maintain a similar atmosphere of food, drink, and belly dancing.

After the Middle East Restaurant closed Ed Tayoun's son, Mike and Joe, ran the shorter-lived Nile. 29 September 1999, Philadelphia Inquirer. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Today, the music portion of the Tayoun legacy continues on. Ed passed away on 30 January 2013 in New Jersey; and Jim, after serving his prison sentence, edited and published a newspaper - the Public Record. He died in 2017. Joe and William Tayoun, Ed’s sons, are members of the Turkish World Rock band Barakka. Joe Tayoun is a local, national, and internationally known percussionist and teacher, who also performs with M’Oud Swing, a World Jazz Ensemble. He’s appeared on percussion on several albums including the Jaffna World Music Ensemble’s Jaffna (1996), Eat the Roddenberries (2019), and Aravod’s Until the Night.

Special Thanks to Joseph Tayoun.

Richard M. Breaux

© Midwest Mahjar