George Farah & Wafa Nageeb Tour Brazil, the US, and Record for Alamphon

 George Farah & Wafa Nageeb Tour Brazil, the US, and Record for Alamphon 

George Farah & Wafa Nageeb, c. 1945. MOW 1 December 1948. Courtesy of the Moise A. Khayrallah Center of Lebanese Diaspora Studies. North Carolina State University.


Farid Alam Al-Din built Alamphon Records from the estate of legendary record seller and independent label imprint creator A.J. Macksoud. Although first housed on Washington Street in Manhattan’s Little Syria, in the minds of most people Alamphon Records is best remembered for its World War II location at 123 Court Street or its post-1954 storefront at 182 Atlantic Avenue. Alamphon featured high-quality dubs of records Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Yousef Taj, Farid El Atrash, Asmahan, Layla Morad, Mohamed El-Bakar, and others pressed in Lebanon and Egypt but it also became associated with immigrant musicians to the United States such as George Berberi, Sana and Amer Kadaj, Jamili Matouk, Yousef Hatem, Toufic Barham, and Elie Baida. Lesser known are the musicians who often traveled to the US for concert tours, recorded for labels like Alamphon during their brief stays, but returned to Lebanon or Syria to continue their careers in music. Among these were Nageeb Sarage (1923-2003), singer Wafa Nageeb, and composer, oud and violin player, George Farah. 


George Farah "Ana Habebi" Alamphon #2147-1&2. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.
https://youtu.be/POx8VbUk_mM

George Farah "Oud Taksim Bayati" Alamphon #2135 

https://youtu.be/YjEx23vW3xQ


George Farah "Oud Taksim Ajam Ashiran" Alamphon #2136

https://youtu.be/Du5zsfz-LFs


Born Georges Salim Farah in the Beqaa Valley’s ancient city of Baalbeck, Lebanon (Greater Syria) in 1913 to Salim and Adele Farah, young George grew up watching his musician father play the oud. Responding to his son’s curiosity, Salim gifted five-year-old Georges an oud and Georges took to the strings like a fish to water. As he aged, Georges spent hours among the ruins of Baalbeck’s citadel, walking along the Berdawni River, strumming his oud. He impressed his father with how well he could play by the time he reached adolescence. 


Life in French-mandate Lebanon witnessed the transformation of Beirut and of George Farah’s life. Transitioning from an Ottoman regional capital to cosmopolitan center, George Farah relocated to Beirut in his early twenties. Workers completed Beirut’s Grand Theater in 1933 and the Societe Radio Orient launched Radio East in 1934, in the coming years, both would play  central roles in Farah’s career. Meanwhile, Georges met and married Loris Shaheen. Together they’d have children - Najat, Antoine, and Mary, all of whom developed their own interests in music.


Adding to George Farah’s early training by his father was his formal study of the oud at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. Here, Farah learned from several leading musicians of the time and expanded his music knowledge, vocabulary, and fingering dexterity exponentially. Inspired by Levantine zajal poetry and Lebanese folk music, Farah composed music beyond the Egyptian influenced repertoire most common in Arabic music of the period.


George Farah performed and presented his first public concert on 4 April 1940 at The Grand Theater in Beirut. His thirty-piece orchestra showcased the song “Memories of Baalbeck” much to the delight of the audience and members of the press in attendance.  The concert’s success boosted his career and Societe Radio Orient hired him as the director of the artistic department at Radio East, which French Mandate authorities rebranded Radio Levant, from 1943 to 1945. Farah’s popularity soon stretched beyond the borders of Lebanon to Egypt and other countries catching the attention and ear of one of Egypt’s most prolific contemporary composers and singers- Mohammed Abdel Wahab.


At the same time as George Farah’s rise, Farid Alam renamed his Arabic Record Company – Alamphon Records. Similar to massive American companies like Victor, Alamphon encourage its growing customer base to buy war bonds and support the allied forces. During World War II, Arab Americans played an active role in supporting the U.S. war effort through War Bond campaigns, relief drives, and military service. Brooklyn’s Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian Committee organized four successful War Bond drives, with the final campaign targeting $2 million. Lebanese and Syrian American leaders such as George Hamid and Alfred Alam also sponsored Red Cross and Army-Navy Emergency Relief campaigns, earning recognition from the U.S. Treasury Department. For many Arab Americans, purchasing War Bonds and Savings Stamps became both a patriotic act and a source of ethnic pride.


From 1942 to 1948, Alamphon Records promoted wartime patriotism through record sleeves featuring the Treasury Department’s Minuteman Savings Stamp symbol, bald eagles, military imagery, and slogans encouraging bond and stamp purchases. At the same time, World War II disrupted the Arabic record industry by halting imports from Cairo’s Baidaphon label and destroying Germany’s Odeon pressing plants. As Allied forces advanced in North Africa, the U.S. State Department contracted Alamphon Records to provide music for Arabic-language Voice of America broadcasts from 1942 to 1945. An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Arab Americans served in the U.S. military during the war. By 1948, George Farah along with John and Wafa Nageeb (b. 1914) formed a small ensemble that took off for the Americas with hopes of touring Brazil and the United States.


In Brazil, George Farah and Wafa Nageeb played several concerts and social events. He visited Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of adoring fans turned out for the Mount Lebanon Club social and the banquet at the athletic club. Michel Safi, often an accompanist for Elias Abourjaily, joined Farah and Nageeb on several gigs during their stay. That we can document, Farah and Nageeb toured Brazil from April 1948 until September 1948. Family lore suggests that despite initial skepticism and apprehensiveness about Farah’s popularity at home and in the diaspora, Brazilian diplomats eventually conceded making way for a performance at Rio’s 2,244 capacity Theatro Municipal. Radio performances rounded out the tour, but it was the live performances that attracted the intellectual and cultural elite dressed to the nines in their formal best. 


Wafa Nageeb flanked by Michel Safi and George Farah in Brazil. O'Orient 1 April 1948. Courtesy of the Moise A. Khayrallah Center of Lebanese Diaspora Studies. North Carolina State University.


After a successful stay in Brazil, George Farah and Wafa Nageeb next set off for the United States. In Brooklyn, New York, Farah and Nageeb held several concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their 8 December 1948 concert, part of an arts extravaganza, drew over 1500 people with proceeds donated to the American Middle East Relief. Attendees included United Nations’ diplomats and the grandson of one of the American University in Beirut founders. In addition to Farah and Negeeb, Midwest Mahjar readers will note that Melhem S. Hawie read poetry at the event Aliya Hassen, of Cairo Records, appeared in the cast of the play “The Tragedy of Palestine.” The Academy of Music hosted another concert on 2 January 1949 and followed by concerts in Fall River, Massachusetts on 16 January 1949. Concert goers travelled from New Bedford, Boston, and as far away as Pawtucket and Central Falls, Rhode Island. George Farah played oud and violin and Wafa Nageeb’s husband, John, played cello.




A Nageeb and Farah-related event.  December 8, 1948. Courtesy of Newspapers.com



During his time in the US, George Farah caught the attention of wealthy Lebanese American widow Marie Azeez el-Khoury. A shared interest in the writings, life, and legacy of Khalil Gibran led to el-Khoury having several meetings including a dinner with Farah. Born Marie Azeez in 1883 in Mount Lebanon, El-Khoury immigrated to the US with her parents and sister in 1891. First in Manhattan, then Atlantic City, Tannous Azeez owned and operated a jewelry business known as “The Little Shop of T. Azeez.” Meanwhile, Marie received her formal education at Drew Seminary and the Washington D.C, College for Ladies. By age twenty-one, Marie worked as a journalist, married magazine publisher Esau El-Khoury, became widowed and suffered the loss of her father. Forced to care for her mother and sister, she rebuilt the family business and established herself as one of New York’s premier jewelry designers. Vogue Magazine and the New Yorker featured Marie el-Khoury and her original designs. Her continued interest in the literary arts and jewelry-making positioned her to be a patron and participant to the Mahjari literary and arts movement. It was her friendship with Khalil Gibran, and efforts to preserve his material and artistic legacy, that fueled el-Khoury’s interest in musicians like George Farah who adapted Gibran’s writings. Lore has it that el-Khoury invited Farah to sit and work at a desk that had been Gibran’s. 


In 1949, Alamphon Records released eight songs by Wafa Nageeb and nearly all these were composed by George Farah. Approximately ten songs by George Farah feature solo performances. For current collectors this makes both artists complete Alamphon output reasonable to acquired in their entirety. George Farah also recorded seveal sides in Brazil on Continental.


With Farah and Nageeb’s return to Lebanon in 1949, Nageeb fades from history, but Farah appeals to the Minister of Education in Lebanon for the development of an eastern music studies curriculum, versus simply a western music studies, at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. Conservatory administrators tap George Farah to create and head up the new Oriental Studies department. In this position, Farah continues to compose, develops a complete curriculum for the oud, and publishes an Arabic-language music theory text.


In addition to composing classical instrumental music, George Farah operatic vocal music that would be performed by some of his students and leading Lebanese opera singers of the period including Salma Asmar, Yola Younes Nasif, Hortense Jabriyeh, Najla Abu Joudeh, and Mimi Nahme. Few biographies of Farah, however, mention Wafa Nageeb, one of the earliest vocalists to sing and record Farah’s compositions. 


Farah oversaw the Oriental Studies department at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory from 1952 until 1971. Ironically, Lebanese-Cypriot American Anis Fuleihan served as director of the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory from 1953 to 1960 and supported Farah’s vision and pioneering music scholarship. The awards, accolades, interviews, and honors were many. Perhaps one of the greatest personal honors was that all three of his children became musicians. Mary Farah Dognio became a clarinetist. Antonio Farah is a composer, cellist, and orchestra conductor, and his daughter Najla Farah Nahra became her father’s accompanist and chair of the Oriental department at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory. Najla died in November 2020.


George Farah died 9 December 2001. During the span of his life, he composed over 455 songs ranging from religious hymns, operas, zajal, symphonies, and patriotic songs to folk and children's songs. Several of his compositions and performances with Najla from the 1960s through the 1980s can be found at the YouTube channel Lebanese Classical Music Treasures. The recordings of him singing and playing the oud on Alamphon and his compositions and accompaniments with Wafa Najeeb represent some of his earliest audio recordings.


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 U...
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 el Saffi. Jeanette's mother accompanied her on the trip.  Compare and contrast two of Hanan's four identity documents for Brazil. One gives her birt...
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 ...
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

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 secon...
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.     ...
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. Originall...
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 immigr...
Read more

Mohammed El-Akkad: King of the Kanun

Image
  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 backe...
Read more