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

  Michel Akkaoui: Tears of Joy, Sadness, and Longing for Home Record sleeve photo of Michel Akkaoui. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. By 1957, in the Arab American music world the hafla and mahrajan circuit reached their apex. The period Anne Rasmussen labeled the nightclub era had just gotten its legs. The second wave of Arab immigration to the United States brought new souls, growing in demographic diversity, and fresh faces to the almost half-century old music scene. Sana & Amer Kadaj , Jalil Azzouz , Mohammed El-Akkad , Jack Ganaim , Mohamed el-Bakkar , and others made up the vast array of new musicians recording on Fred Alam’s Alamphon , Albert Rashid’s Al-Chark , George N. Gorayeb's Arabphon , Cleopatra, and growing set of vanity and re-issue labels for Arab and Arab American audiences and listeners to enjoy. Into this milieu stepped the relatively unknown-oudist Michel Akkaoui.   Michel Akkaoui was born in Tripoli, Lebanon 27 September 1930. We know very li...

Lillian “Leila” A. Mazloom (Musician, singer) Lillian Mazloom, 1945, G.A.R. Memorial High School, Garchive Yearbook. Ancestry.com If you collect or have any 78 RPM Arabic records in the United States, you’ve no doubt come across or seen records on the Maloof, Macksoud , or Alamphon labels. Much more rare, but not as valued by collectors, are records on the Mazloom label (there were likely only two discs ever released). We’ve done some digging after acquiring two Mazloom discs and here’s what we’ve uncovered… Lillian “Leila” A. Mazloom was one of seven born 7 May 1927 to George and Rose Unis Mazloom in Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania. George and Rose immigrated separately from Greater Syria, now Lebanon. Rose came to the United States as an infant in 1892/93 and George arrived in 1902/03 almost ten years later, the couple married in 1909 and had four children before Lillian was born. Lillian and her sister Rosanna took interest in music while they were young ...

Jamili Matouk or Jameeleh Matouk or Jamileh Matouk (Musician, Dancer, Singer) Jamili Matouk Deep, 1956 Next to Sana Kadaj , Jamileh Matouk or Jamili Matouk or Jameeleh Matouk (1911-1997) became one of Alamphon Records’ top-selling female vocalists in the late 1940s. Born in Tripoli, Lebanon 25 February 1911, we know very little about Matouk’s parents who seemed to have followed those members of the mahjar who immigrated to Brazil and Argentina. Matouk’s brothers Thomas, Anis, and Charles immigrated to the United States in 1912, 1920, and 1923 respectively.  Her sister, Najla, went to Canada. Anis married and settled down with his wife and worked as a tailor in Brooklyn. Thomas settled in Brooklyn, but divorced his wife, and Charles remained single for the time, but later married and moved to Florida. Jamileh arrived in the United States 24 November 1930 from Santos, Brazil after a stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on what appears to have been a to...