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

  Tanious Maroun Al-Blouzany: A Little-known Poet and Singer records for Maloof Records Tanious Maroun al-Blouzany, 1936. 29 August 1936, Al-Hoda newspaper. Courtesy of the Moise A. Khayallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, North Carolina State University. Back in March 2023, I purchased seven Maloof Phonograph records and one A.J. Macksoud disc from a fellow collector. Much to my surprise, he had two Maloof discs—#4000/4001 and #9003/9004—that I had never seen before, one of which I had only ever read about. The elusive Maloof singer Samy Attaya appears on #9003/9004. However, disc #4000/4001 was so faded and worn that I could not make out the musician listed on the label; all I could read with any certainty was “OUZANY.” I asked Excavated Shellac’s Jonathan Ward about both records. Back in 2019, I had written a post about Samy Attaya , but at the time, I had never actually seen or heard one of his records. I have since attached the digitized audio transfer to Midwest M...

  Mayer Murad, Nessim Murad, Zaki Murad, and the Murad Family Legacy of Recorded Sound in the US and Egypt Mayer Murad, Photo property of the Sephardic Heritage Museum. New York, New York. Zaki Murad, Photo courtesy of AMAR Foundation for Arabic Music Archiving & Research. Only known photographs of Nessim Murad. Photo courtesy of family member Stefanie B. Most people who know anything about the history of Arabic music, record collecting, or Arab or Arab American 78 rpm records have heard of Zaki Murad and his daughter Layla Murad. Few people know that Layla’s uncles and Zaki’s brothers were also musicians who recorded in the United States – Nessim Murad and Mayer Murad. At Midwest Mahjar our collection contains dozens of 78s by Zaki and/or Layla Murad, but for years we were perplexed by the existence of Maloof Phonograph Records by Nessim and Mayer.  Mayer Murad’s career was known to us because of our familiarity with Dick Spottswood’s Ethnic Music on Record listing of Ma...

  Mosa Kalooky: A Syrian American Kanunist, Hidden in Plain Sight on Maloof Records  Mosa Kolooky, Caravan , December 1954. Courtesy of Newspapers.com Here at Midwest Mahjar, we do not just feature the most popular or well-known Arab American musicians of the 78-rpm era, we try to include, highlight, and explore the lives of lesser-known recorded musicians as well. Ensemble musicians are often overlooked, if mentioned at all, yet these often-underappreciated oud, kanun, derbeke, and nay players served as the foundation upon which the likes of Elias Louis Wardiny , Salim Doumani , Anthony Shapini , or Wadeeh Bagdady built the legacies we celebrate. One of the rarely-mentioned and barely-noted musicians who recorded in the ensemble on several Maloof Phonograph records was the kanun player – Mosa Kalooky or Moses Kalouky.     Mosa Kalooky was born either 5 April 1886 or 10 July 1888 in Homs, Syria. He seems to have immigrated to the United States at the age of 22 in 1...