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

  On Radio & Record: The Pioneering Piano Music of Elizabeth Awad Elizabeth Awad, circa 1970s. Courtesy of Diane G. & Donald N.  In 1928 and 1929, Columbia Records 50000-X series of Arabic-language 78-rpm shellac discs recorded in the United States. Today, collectors rarely, if ever come across these exclusive discs. A few by Aziza Helmi, Prince Mouhadin , and Nahim Simon, have surfaced but others remain rare and/or unseen by living collectors and researchers. One musician we’ve discussed before, in our profile on Abraham Messadi , was oudist Toufic Moubaid. We mentioned the musician Moubaid collaborated with on radio and several early recordings, Elizabeth Awad, in passing. This post, however, hopes to shine a spotlight on pianist Elizabeth Awad.  Before they made their way to Columbia Studios at 233 Broadway in Manhattan’s Woolworth Building, Toufic Moubaid and Elizabeth Awad regularly appeared together on radio and one of the first radio programs to feature Ar...

  Hana Rached:  After Stellar Career Among the Maghreb and Mashriq, a Jewish Tunisian Singer Joins the Mahjari Mahrajan Circuit Photo of Hana Rached from her El Djamal 45 rpm single record cover. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Most of the singers and musicians we've covered at Midwest Mahjar immigrated from or trace their ancestry to the Levant - the portion of the former Ottoman Greater Syria that today makes up Syria, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel, and Jordan. In fact, about ninety percent of the artists that performed on the mahrajan circuit in the United States immigrated from or were the children/grandchildren of Mashriqi countries. The Arabic-language record business in the first five decades of the twentieth century reflected this fact. Most Arab and Arab American musicians in the early part of the twentieth century from the African continent came from, or had connections with, Egypt. To be sure, Mayer and Naseem Murad were Arabic-speaking Jews born in Egypt, bu...

  Elias Abourjaily: Poet, Composer, & Singer Elias N. Aboujaily,  1957. Brazilian Immigration document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com It's the New Year!!! I can't believe it's 2025 and we've been collecting Arabic records for nearly ten years. Efforts to uncover details of some musicians' lives can be extremely difficult and influenced by several factors -surviving family members, what country, or city a musician called home, and the availability of sources. Locating sources can be especially difficult for someone who lived between several countries and cities. We acquired the LPs of Elias Abourjaily in 2023.  At the time, we knew nothing about him but we set out on a quest to find information about this little-known musician. Born in San Nicholas, Honduras or Mazraat El Nahr, Lebanon, on 11 June 1921 to Naimtallah and Badir Abourjaily, we know very little about the early years of Elias N. Abourjailly’s life. He had at least half-one sister, and possibly one brother...