Laurice Peters: From the Derbecki Ensemble to the Queen of Cleveland's Arab American Music Scene
Laurice Peters: From the Derbecki Ensemble to the Queen of Cleveland's Arab American Music Scene Laurice Peters circa 1960. From The Derbecki Ensemble's Hafli: Echos of the Middle East (1960) In the recorded Arab American music scene in the Midwest, Detroit remained unmatched since Albert Rashid first established Al-Chark Records there before relocating his record operation to Manhattan and then Brooklyn, New York. We knew very little about Cleveland’s Arab American music culture until November, 2018, when we found several 33 1/3 LPs in the estate collection of Lucille Joseph Harris here in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Lucille, or Lucy, as she was better known was one of nine the children born to Shikralla Joseph and Mary Skaff Joseph in 1922. The Josephs had a history of initially working as peddlers and then they opened and operate a small grocery store not far from the family residence at 821 Windsor Street. One of the reasons Lucy’s estate contained so few Arabic records may b...