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

  Sound, Light, and New York City's Little Syria: A Look at Michel Macksoud's Original "Radio Lab" Original photo appeared in Richmond Times Dispatch , December 4, 1955. Courtesy of Shutterstock.com Back in 2019, in our search for information about record shop and record label owner A.J. Macksoud , we learned about the Macksoud family.  The Macksouds were merchants in Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s Little Syria. They owned a kimono manufacturing business, watch and jewelry stores, and, of course, Abraham J. Macksoud operated his record store since 1907 and a record label since around 1914 on Greenwich then Rector and finally Washington Street including 77, 88, and 89 Washington Street. At the same time A.J. Macksoud managed his phonograph record company, label, and record store, another Macksoud, an M.E. Macksoud , owned and operated his radio and radio components shop at 84 Washington Street.   Ad for M.E. Macksoud's Radio shop from Radio Digest , November 22, 1924....

  Antoine Hage: Life of a Second Wave Violinist/Oudist Living Between New York and California Antoine M. Hage with his violin, The Caravan 2 May 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.com Closer to the turn of the twentieth century, in Buffalo, New York, some 350 Syrian immigrants and Syrian Americans lived in the city along the shores of Lake Erie and across the border from Canada. Buffalo's Syrian community in 1907 boasted at least two restaurants, approximately seven businesses with storefront properties, and Saint John Maronite Church (1904). Just 25 miles north, another 350 Syrians, seemingly more established, lived in Niagara Falls, New York. Social, cultural, and political ties soon bound the Syrian communities in the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Utica (200 miles east with a Syrian population near 300) together.  The development of the hafla and mahrajan circuit in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s further accentuated the connections between these cities and local musicians f...