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

  “PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aided Palestinian Refugees Alamphon Record with Albert Joseph dealer/seller stamp. Courtesy of Frank J. Dalton. Back in November 2020, we received a generous donation of about ninety 78-rpm Arabic records from retired dentist Joe Corey, who grew up in West Virginia. Mr. Corey contacted us because his friend, fellow church member, and labor lawyer, David Khorey, came across some of our Arab American musician profiles featured on the Arab America news website. Over dinner, and pleasant discussion about Arab American history, David asked me, “Do you know how people got their records?”   I replied, “Some people ordered records from a catalogue and had them shipped from New York. Also, dealers likely sold records as vendors at regional SOYO meetings, mahrajan, hafla, and regional Syrian-Lebanese club conventions.” He then recalled a well-known vendor from his youth in western Pennsylvania who dre...

    Gabriel S. Maloof’s Syrian & Oriental Record Shop in Boston’s Syrian Neighborhood     The stamp on this label reads," Gabriel S. Maloof, Dealer in Syrian & Oriental Records,  93A Hudson Street, Boston, MA." Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Photo of Boston’s G.S. Maloof courtesy of his grandson. Much of the research and writing on Arab Americans, Arab American music, and Arab American 78 RPM records has focused on Manhattan and Brooklyn’s "Little Syria" or the Detroit/Dearborn metropolitan area. Although Boston’s "Syriantown" neighborhood has received increasing attention with respect to its restaurants, churches, and businesses, these same sources, say very little specifically about the role of music and record shops in Boston’s “Little Syria” even though we know that by the late 1920s and early 1930s there was at least one well-known record seller in Boston’s neighborhood that centered around Hudson Street, Tyler, Harrison Avenue, Oli...