Elias Younes: An Oudist Settles in One of Dixie's Oldest Syrian/Lebanese Communities
Elie Younes: An Oudist Settles in One of Dixie's Oldest Syrian/Lebanese Communities
Elie Younes, 1947. Brazilian Travel document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
In the last four years, we have seen hundreds of Arab and
Arab American 78s from throughout the diaspora. Because certain types of music,
like the well-known and improvisational taqsim, traditionally don’t last for
the typical 3 to 5 minutes consistent with 78 rpm technology, dozens, if not
scores of artists, recorded single songs on double-sided discs. Some artists
may have even gone as far as to record a single song on two double-sided discs.
Nonetheless, before now, we had never come across an Arab or Arab American 78
rpm album set by a single popular artist (there are a few 78rpm album sets by priests and church choirs). This particular set
contains five (it may have contained six given the number of sleeves in the
album booklet) 78 rpm records recorded by Elie Younes.
The self-produced Younisphon 78 RPM Record Album with two of the ten sides below. Although "Tahiet El Watan" starts slow, listeners are hit with a beautifully rhythmic crescendo at about twenty seconds in. Collection of Richard M. Breaux. "Azibima Chiti" # CX 171 A - https://youtu.be/7vnfACJuq-4 "My Village" #CW 171 B - https://youtu.be/QoccfEii7QY "Ah Ya Jamil" # CX 172 A - https://youtu.be/6pc_6lHRRCE "Ya Mihager" # CX 172 B - https://youtu.be/xNaaGVIknYM "Tahiet El Watan" #CX 173 A- https://soundcloud.com/user-356929609-75127210/elie-younes-younisphon-cx-173a-tahiet-el-watan "Chiftic El Ein" # CX 173 B - https://youtu.be/PdrwzgoDa5s "Ataba" # CX 174 A - https://youtu.be/-08Gi6aOTV0 "Al Habib" # CX 174 B - https://youtu.be/enn5b5GVfDE "Ahwak" #CX 175 A https://youtu.be/B9B3LzCIX0c "Al Sief" # CX 175 B - https://youtu.be/-Kbr3wEmuGA |
Elie Younes or Elias Younes was one of six boys
born to Khazen Younes and Salima Khatar Younes in Nabiyeh or Nabay, Greater
Syria (today Lebanon) on 17 July 1924. He learned to play the oud by the time
he was ten years old while listening to his father’s phonograph records and graduated from the Conservatoire International de Musique de Paris. By the
time he was twenty, he toured much of the Middle East and North Africa. Like
many Arab musicians in the World War II era, Younes’s largest following lived
as a part of the Ottoman diaspora in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
In Argentina, the 377,00 Lebanese immigrants lived in cities
like Buenos Aires, Chaco, Cordoba, Tucaman, Salta, and Los Rioja. Most people
assimilated within a generation or two, but music remained one of the ways people retained facets of their expressive culture. Similarly, in Mexico, Lebanese immigrants
who began to arrive in the late nineteenth century settled in places large and
small, however, the total number of Lebanese/Syrian immigrants to Mexico was one-third
smaller than in those who went to Argentina during the same stretch of time.
Here they took up residence in Mexico City, Vera Cruz, Tampico, and other
cities. Brazil became the greatest recipient of Syrian/Lebanese immigrants in
South America. New arrivals founded communities in Sao Paulo, Rio, and Para. By the time, Younes arrived in 1947,
most Syrian/Lebanese communities in these countries had at least two generations
born outside Lebanon living there.
Elie Younes first travelled to Brazil in 1948 from Dakar, Senegal.
Lebanese immigrants in Senegal totaled in the hundreds until French Mandate
when their numbers surged. Lebanese people in Senegal worked as street vendors,
small business people, and in the peanut trade. Unlike in North and South
America where they intermarried, Lebanese immigrants tended to marry only other
Lebanese. Their numbers increased again after World War II’s end as Younes
departed.
Elias Younes. Birmingham Herald, December 11, 1959. Courtesy of Newspapes.com |
In Argentina, Younes recorded with a company contracted to
record for the RCA Victor Argentina, S.A. studios in Buenos Aires. Labels included
Spanish, Arabic, and transliterated Arabic. He recorded RCA Victor #P-1276-A “Weinu
El Nabib Wenu” (Dónde esta mi Amor/Where is my love) & RCA-Victor #P-1276-B
“Bagdadi Ahwak Ia Man Maha” (Yo te quiero/ I love you). RCA-Victor rival, Columbia Records, established Discos Columbia De Mexico in 1947. It pressed personalized
Younes Records for Elie Younes which included TC-467-8 “Tanza Oriental” backed
with TC-468-8 “Azibi Ma Checti Albi.” The violin on "Tanza Oriental"sounds remarkable and is likely the work of Naim Karacand (although we cannot say for certain).
"Danza Oriental," Younes Records, Made in Mexico for Discos de Columbia Mexico, S.A. and "Bagdadi Ahwak Ia Man Maha," on RCA Victor #P-1276-B. Collection of Richard M. Breaux. "Danza Oriental," https://soundcloud.com/user-356929609-75127210/younes-records-columbia-danza-oriental-tc-469-7
Elie Younes "I Sing for You Love," Cairo Records #154 https://youtu.be/5pFvJ1scSfs
Lebanese/Syrian musicians like Hanan, Jamili Matouk, Naim
Karakand, and others traveled between South American, Mexico, and the United
States rather freely and frequently. Although Younes’s immigration documents
list 9 June 1954 as the date of his lawful admission to the United States “for
permanent residency” he appeared in a WBRC Radio Birmingham International
Christmas Concert representing Lebanon in December 1953. Younes also married his wife, Stella, on 15 March
1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. Just over a month later, the Southern Federation
of Syrian-Lebanese Clubs hired him as the primary entertainment for their three-day
open house and convention in Tampa, Florida. George Aide accompanied Younes for
the performance. May 1-3 the Al-Kareem
Club in Orlando, Florida, booked “Naim Karacand, violin, William F. Abihider,
singer and oudist, Elie Younes, singer and oudist, and Jamili Matouk Deeb.”
Sadly, during his return trip from Orlando to Birmingham in May 1954, Elie
Younes flipped and wrecked his car. Fortunately, Younes was not injured and
walked away virtually unscathed.
Elias Younes. c. 1959. Birmingham Post Herald, March 6, 1959. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
By October 1955, Elie Younes had visited twenty US states,
South America, and parts of Europe, yet news articles often focused as much on Younes’s
performance attire than the skill and dexterity he demonstrated while
playing the oud. Even though Younes could hold his own with other oudists of Arab
descent, he did not gain the same notoriety he had in Argentina or Brazil. At
this point in his career, Younes claimed to have some 372 songs as in his repertoire.
The same article noted that Younes was “dressed in a Middle Eastern costume with
a sheik’s headdress…on an “ood” [sic] or lute, which he says originated in the time
of David, the Biblical psalmist.” One can imagine Younes resembled the one
known photo we have of fellow musician Louis Wardiny. This event in Saint Louis
came to be one of Elie Younes’s last public performances.
Younes plays St. Louis, St. Louis Globe Democrat 9 October 1955. Courtesy of newspapers.com |
Married, settled in Birmingham, Alabama, and a member of the
historic Saint Elias Maronite Church, once pastored by one of the first Arab
Americans to record for Columbia Gramophone Company, Rev. George Aziz, Younes
retired from music and established Younes Construction Company. Birmingham's Syiran/Lebanese population grew from a few families in the 1890s to a vibrant community that established its Phoenician Club in 1905 (later the Cedar Club), a Maronite Church by 1910, and a Melkite church by 1920. The city even had a small Syrian/Lebanese Muslim community, although not big enough to sustain a mosque at the time. Despite the courts declaring Syrians white in 1915 (for the final time), early immigrants faced restrictions on businesses they could patronize and suffered verbal harassment. According to historian Anthony Toth, in 1907, in a bill introduced to prohibit the entry of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian immigrants, U.S. Representative John L. Burnett of Alabama declared Syrians "the most undesirable of the undesirable people of Asia Minor." Burnett led a full legislative attacked on Syrian and other immigrants pushing for the 1917 Immigration Act, and its infamous Asian Barred Zone provision, until his death in 1919. The subsequent, 1924 Johnson-Reed Act limited Syrian immigration to 100 per year. Congress did not overturn the notorious "whites only" naturalized citizenship requirement until 1952 and it took til 1965 for a massive overhaul of the immigration quota system.
In 1959, Younes
officially gained naturalized United States citizenship. His notoriety and
standing in the general business community and the Syrian/Lebanese community of
Birmingham led to his selection as president of the Cedars Club, the local organization
with ties to the larger Southern Association of Syrian and Lebanese Clubs.
Elie Younes naturalization document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
After completing his term as Cedar Club president in 1963, Elie
Younes disappeared from the press. His company and, more specifically, his company’s
various bowling teams popped up in the amateur sports news from time to time. Stella Younes passed in 1986. Elie later married Afaf Elias Younes and they had one son named Elias Jessy in 1993.
An older Elie Younes. Photo courtesy of https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/by/younes/elie |
Elie Younes remarried and lived out the rest
of his days in Birmingham. He died 23
April 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama. Although Younes Construction is long gone, we are lucky enough to have several of Younes’s commercial singles and his uniquely
self-produced album set on his own Younisphon label to appreciate his contribution to mahjari music.
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