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

Mme. Marie Bashian Bedikian A publicity photo with printed stage name, likely used to sign autographs. Courtesy of Gina A.  (Granddaughter of Marie Bashian Bedikian). Our interest in 78 rpm records of the Syrian/Lebanese diaspora stem from the three estate sales-worth of records we located here in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the one estate of records from Janesville, Wisconsin. What is fascinating about Janesville and La Crosse compared to, say, Milwaukee or other cities in the United States is that there were few if any co-existing Greek or Armenian communities in La Crosse or Janesville. They were, with one or two exceptions, Arab American communities that existed in much larger German American or Norwegian American communities. Some of the musicians on Arab and Arab American 78s identify as culturally Arab, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze, but we had not come across any Armenian or Armenian American 78s or artists from among the ov...

Rev. George Aziz Rev. George Aziz, 1903, Buffalo, New York.  Buffalo Courier , 6 December 1903. Courtesy of Newspapers.com For years music historians and ethnomusicologist have claimed that pianist, composer, and later record company founder, Alexander Maloof held significance in part because his Victor #17443 A & B, A Trip to Syria and Al-Ja-Za-Yer, represented the first record marketed to an Arabic-speaking audience. This claim took hold because Maloof recorded on Victor before any other known Arab American or Arabic-speaking musician in the United States. Careful examination of the physical 78 rpm disc, however, demonstrably proves this assertion to be inaccurate. All known copies of Victor #17443A & #17443B, are completely in English. There is neither a combination of Arabic and English or only Arabic on the well-known and sometimes photographed label. We know that when Victor wished to sell songs to an Arab American fan base, it had the ability a...