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

  Rev. Ilyas T. Kurban: The Recording Legacy of a Tirelessly Working Musical Metropolitan Ilyas T. Kurban from the Caravan, March 21, 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.com On a mild fifty-degree day in Brooklyn, New York, in December 1956, the Archdeacon Ilyas T. Kurban (Elias T. Korban) made his way to the nearest United States Post Office and mailed a handwritten addressed box to Mr. Lee Beshar Cohlmia at 1932 University Avenue in Wichita, Kansas. The parcel, marked FRAGILE BROADCAST RECORDS, contained four shellac 78 rpm phonograph discs recorded and produced by Sidney Feldman’s Mastertone Recording Studios label in their production facilities at 709 Eighth Avenue, Suite 36, in New York City. The discs contained liturgical and religious singing by Ilyas Kurban. Mastertone likely produced vanity recordings for interested parties who paid for studio time. Vanity pressing arrangements did not bind performers to long-term contracts with record companies. Those with enough money paid fo...