Midwest Mahjar: The Recorded Sounds of the Arab Diaspora in the United States at 78 RPM

  Leon S. Nahmee: The Forgotten Story of a Syrian American Composer and his Adventures in the Ottoman Army, Arab Allied Army, and US Automatic Music Industry Leon S. Nahmee circa 1924. Leon S. Nahmee's 1925 "Oriental Piano Selections." Courtesy of the University of Minnesota TC Andersen Library, Immigration History Research Center Archives, Minneapolis, MN.   Before the 1930s Arab America could boast of only a handful of musical composers. We have discussed the Maloof Phonograph Company and Alexander Maloof 's records, sheet music, and piano rolls in another blog post. This month we relay the story of a lesser-known Syrian American composer, band conductor, and musician whose career peaked in the 1920s and 1930s - Leon S. Nahmee.   Leon Nahmee scored plays, composed and published sheet music, and led military bands although he was not nearly as well-known as Alexander Maloof or Anis Fuleihan. He tried his hand at one of the other popular forms of music technology outs