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

  Fathalla Abyad:  An Overlooked, Underappreciated, but Seemingly Ever- Present Mahjari Oudist Fathalla H. Abyad in the 1950s.   Photo courtesy of Raymond Rashid. In April 1920, Fathalla Abyad left Aleppo, Syria, to immigrate to the United States. It was only six months before French Troops wrestled control over the former Ottoman territory under the newly implemented League of Nations mandate system. Onboard the ship Rochembeau, Wadia and Fathalla Abyad, a couple who had wed approximately ten years before, and their daughter, Antoinette, arrived at Ellis Island. Word was that in addition to lower Manhattan’s Little Syria and Brooklyn’s Little Syria, Arabic-speaking people had been building a community across the river in Paterson, New Jersey. In fact, the Abyads listed Paterson as their final destination.  Fathalla's cousin, Bashir, had already settled in Paterson and some sources suggest Fathahlla may have come to the United States earlier, lived in Hudson, New Jer...

  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...