Mohamed Said ZainEldeen: Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor
Mohamed Said ZainEldeen: Fragments in the Life of an Early Columbia Records' Tenor Mohamed Said ZainEldeen. Photo Courtesy of Richard Z. There are several early-period Arab American musicians for whom we have so little information we can hardly compose a narrative that provides anything other than the most basic biographical information. Walim Kamel and Zakia Agob are among them. For others, we have slightly more, but still incomplete information. The tenor M. ZainEldeen stands out as one. We've long had one M. ZainEldeen 78 RPM record and most recently, after we undertook piecing together scraps of his biographical information, we acquired another. As usual, we scoured over immigration documents, U.S. Census data, city directories, and three-quarters of the way through, we located and corresponded with surviving relatives - here's what we found. Mohamed ZainEldeen was born 1 November 1892 in Homs, Syria. Originall...