Anton Abdelahad: Music of the American-born Mahjar

Anton Abdelahad: Music of the American-born Mahjar

circa 1949. Abdelahad's Song Book.

Few Arab American musicians enjoyed the productivity and longevity of singer and ‘oud player, Anton “Tony” Abdelahad (1915-1995).  His live and recorded songs became a staple at “mahrajans” and “haflas” from the 1940s to the 1980s. Ramza Bergoot and Assad Abdelahad immigrated to the United States on 4 September 1904 and 1902, respectively. On 25 November 1905, the couple married in Boston, Massachusetts and settled among a group of Lebanese and Syrians around Hudson Street, Harrison, and Tyler in the heart of Boston just blocks from the Chinese immigrant enclave.  The Abdelahad’s had three children: Evelyn in 1908, Anton in 1915, and Charles in 1918.

Anton “Tony” Abdelahad was born 25 July in 1915 to Syrian immigrant parents, Assad and Ramza Abdelahad, in Boston, Massachusetts. Tony Abdelahad heard an earlier generation of Arab and Arab American musicians on 78 rpm records his father had shipped from Greater Syria, took up music by age seven, and soon developed a style of his own. 

According to some sources, Anton Abdelahad began his career in 1930 at the age of fifteen; by the time he was nineteen his named appeared regularly in the press. One of his first appearances included a performance with Mitry Abdelahad on the program for Boston's Arabic Drama Association's presentation of ""Dahrouge, the Lover." In 1936, another early newspaper accounts of an event Tony played noted, “Anton Abdelahad, a youthful vocalist with the Happy Arabian Club Orchestra, won outspoken approval from members of the audience, many of whom were Arabians or of Arabian descent. They murmured their appreciation in Arabic tongue during a number of his solos, using words and expressions….” Abdelahad began to appear regularly at haflas and mahrajans. The annual concert at John Raad American Legion Post # 438 in Patterson, New Jersey, featured Abdelahad’s group.

Beyond the world of performance, Abdelahad continued to live with his parents, but that all changed by the Fall of 1940. Anton Abdelahad married Mississippi-born Syrian American, Mary Kirby. The Abdelahads eventually had four children, three daughters and one son.

Anton Assad Abdelahad's WWII registration Card. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Although Abdelahad played with a host of Arab and Arab American musicians, in 1946 he began to appear routinely with Philip Solomon on violin, Fathalla Abyada on oud, Mosa Kalooky on kanun, and Mike Hamway on drums. Abdelahad performed with Joe Budway occasionally and came under the influence of Russell Bunai. Although he recorded on a number of record labels, in 1947 Abdelahad started his own Abdelahad Records.

Sorento / Takseem Nahawand  1948	KGC 7035A/ KGC 7036A	Anton Abdelahad
Housing Shortage/ Housing Shortage	KCG 7021A/ KGC 7022A	Anton Abdelahad
Miserlou / Raks Camille 1948	KCG 7019A/ KGC 7020A	Anton Abdelahad – Philip Solomon
Ghaneely-Shway Pt I/ Ghaneely-Shway Pt II	KGS 7017A/ KGS 7018A	Anton Abdelahad
Jazayer/ Takseem Ajam	KGS 7023A/ KGS 7024A	Anton Abdelahad – Philip Solomon

The Abdelahad Record label seemed to operate from 1947 to 1949. It labels always contained the name Abdelahad on them, but there were red with white print, red with black print, and lite blue with dark blue print variations. Some lite blue labels bear the trademark illustration of a sphinx with Great Pyramids in the center (also common on red label Abdelahads) but others lack this familiar symbol. The company also published a song book called, “Abdelahad’s Song Book.” A crowd favorite became his version of "Miserlou," a Mediterranean tune, first recorded by Theodotos Demetriades in 1927 and covered several times over by the time Adbelahad released his version KCG 7019A in 1948. By 1955, Anthony Abraham’s Newark-based Al-Kawakeb or “The Stars” record label seemed to have acquired Abdelahad. Several of the singles that appeared on Abdelahd’s label also appeared on Al-Kawakeb.

https://soundcloud.com/profbro/abdelahad-anton-abdelahad-miserlou-kga-7019a

Three of the four known Abdelahad Records label variation. From the collection of Richard M. Breaux.

Like ElaieBaida, Naim Karakand, and Najeeba Morad, Anton Abdelahad became a household name celebrated in Lebanese/Syrian American communities as one of its best performers. The Glen Falls, New York, two-day hafla sponsored by Saint George’s Orthodox Church became a staple in the Binghamton Metropolitan area and it along with the Syrian and Lebanese Federation of Eastern States annual “Club Algiers” gave Abdelahad top billing. Similarly, the Aleppian Charity Society of Patterson annual Oriental music concert in December 1954, featured Abdelahad and Fadwa Abed on vocals, Joe Budway and Naim Karacand on violin, and Mike Hamway on drums. Around the same time, Abdelahad lent his face to an advertisement on for the Eastern Star Restaurant at 205 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. The campaign read, “Eat Where the Stars Eat” playing on Abdelahad’s rising fame as well as the name of the restaurant.

The ad section of the 1948 Girls' High School Yearbook, p. 117 in Roxbury, Massachusetts included an Abdelahad ad with 93 Hudson Street as the address. Courtesy of Yerbooks.com

Abdelahad, Russell Bunai, Louis Morad, and Tony Tawa performed at the Blue Slipper Club in Lawrence, Massachusetts and in other venues in Worcester and Boston proper. The Arabic Radio Program sponsored an annual hafli in Lawrence in March 1954. The presence of Mike Sarkisians Club Tamba troupe on the program made this event different from past gigs. As Abdelahad made his rounds on the annual mahrajan and hafla circuit in 1955 and 1956, he noticed that increasingly his back started to irritate and them pain him. The pain became so excruciating that Abdelahad missed the April 15, 1956- hafli in Patterson, New Jersey. It was his first missed show in twenty years. It suggests a mixed ethnic audience of eighty or so Arabs (Syrian and Lebanese) and Armenians in attendance. To be sure, more than ten years later, the Bridgeport, Connecticut Lions Club event in August 1967, featured Abdelahad along with musicians of Turkish, Armenians, Greek, and Israeli descent.

Advertisement from 25 July 1957, The Caravan. Newspapers.com

Abdelahad is, likely, best remembered for his album Middle East Fantasy: Arabic Music by Tony Abdelahad. The ten-track LP included Naim Karacand, Ronnie Kirby, Fred Elias, Philip Solomon, Mike Hamway, George Hamway, and the trio of Yvonne Rahwan, Matilda Stephens, and Ramza Abdelahad (Tony's mother).

Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Maalouf Rahwan, and Matilda Dada Stephens Ronnie Kirby, George Hamway, Mike Hamway, Nain Karacand,  Anton Abdelahad, Philip Solomon, and Freddie Elias on Anton Abdelahad's Middle East Fantasy LP. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection.

 

Front Cover of Middle East Fantasy:Arabic Music by Tony Abdelahad. Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Rahwan, and Matilda Stephens appeared on most of the album's songs with vocals including the three sampled below. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux Collection.

Ya Binty (Daughter of Mine): https://youtu.be/4eho62xDueI

Ith Il Nee _ Speak Not of Love: https://youtu.be/gyz_LWuRi6o

Ya Ka Weeya Alby _ Heartache: https://youtu.be/5KWboIAaJDA

One of Abdelahad’s few 1970s hafli’s took place at Saint Anne’s Melkite Byzantine Church in Patterson New Jersey in May 1970.  The crowds he played for by this time had aged, but could still throw a mean hafli. The crowds and demand were not what they had once been, but some young people came to appreciate Abdelahad’s skillfulness and that of his band mates. The last documented Sahra featured Ronnie Kirby, Anton Abdelahad and Fred Elias at the Saint John’s Church Hall in August 1985. Ten years later, on Christmas day 1995, Anton Abdelahad died in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. There are very few Arab American musicians Abdelahad had not played with by his career’s end. Instead of donations to his family, Adbdelahad requested that memorial contributions be made to Danny Thomas’s Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Richard M. Breaux

© Midwest Mahjar