Ronnie Kirby: Boston Metro’s Go to Derbake Player

Ronnie Kirby. From the back cover of Anton Abdelahad's Middle East Fantasy LP. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. 

At Midwest Mahjar we have been blogging about Arab American music for almost five years and we have featured very few percussionists, especially, derbake, doumbek, or drum players. The most well-known drummers to come to mind were Mike Hamway and Eddie Kochak. Anne K. Rassmussen’s work reveals that mahrajan and hafla organizers paid drummers or derbake players least of all. Yet the rhythmic, pulsating, thump of the derbake became a mainstay in the post-acoustic, electrical recording era Arab American music. During the early years of the mahrajan and hafla circuit, members of a traveling singer’s ensemble might come from a local community; however, over the years singers like Hanan and Tony Abdelahad demanded their own ensembles and accompanists travel along with them on the mahrajan circuit. Ronnie Kirby first appeared as a regular percussionist alongside Tony Abdelahad, and sometimes Eddie Kochak. He is forever immortalized on at least three LPs and today he still resides in metro Boston. 

At one time, in the early twentieth century, Boston had the second largest Arabic-speaking population of any city in the United States. Some of the first Arabic-language music dealers resided in the once-declared Cradle of Liberty including Michel H. Ajamian and Gabriel S. Maloof.  In our posts on G.S. Maloof and the background trio of Matilda Stevens, Yvonne Rahwan, and Ramza Abdelahad, we dove deeply into the connections between labor in the textile industry, peddling, Syrian religious life, and the Arabic-language musical scene in Boston. Boston's scene, like Middle Eastern music culture in Brooklyn and Detroit, brought together Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and others with direct personal connections to the former Ottoman Empire and League of Nation mandate territories. Ronald Kirby, like his brother-in-law Tony Abdelahad, was first generation, United-States born.

 

Reynold Joseph Kerby or Ronald J. Kirby was born to immigrants Nellie and Joseph Kerby 10 July 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts. Nellie Benan Hajjar and Joseph G. Kerby (born Joseph Davidian) hailed from Madrin, Anatolia, about 20 km from the border of Syria. Joseph immigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, before heading to the United States, marrying Nellie in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and settling in predominantly-black Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi in 1921. Both Joseph and Nellie identified as Assyrian (although Joseph's Citizenship Petition lists him as Armenian). Nellie gave birth to Mary, George, and Attatia in Mississippi. Most Syrian and Lebanese immigrants to Mississippi set up communities in Vicksburg, Greenville, Greenwood, Gulf Port, Jackson, Meridian, and Columbus. By 1908, their population in the state reached some 2500 and Joseph's cousin Mike Kerby owned a business named Mike Kerby & Brother in Columbus as early as 1907. George and Michel served as the store’s proprietors. Dry Goods and grocery stores emerged as the primary institutions that sustained Arab immigrant life, patronized mostly by African Americans, and the American-born children of these immigrants who took advantage of their liminal racial position and assimilated life in Mississippi.  Tightening immigration restrictions in the form of the 1924 Immigration Act or Johnson-Reed Act at the national level slowed Middle Eastern immigration to a trickle. Nellie birthed her first three children in 1921, 1923, and 1925. The family owned and operated a grocery store at 324 Main Street and lived at 110 ½ South 4^th Street. Interestingly, they’d leave Columbus and head north to Boston after the Great Mississippi flood of 1927.

Petition for Citizenship for Joseph Kerby. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Hudson and Tyler streets and Harrison Avenue stood at the heart of the Arab immigrant and Arab American community in Boston, Massachusetts – the Kirby’s found a home at 74 Hudson. Syrian and Lebanese communities soon emerged in Worcester, Quincy, Lawrence, and nearby areas. In the Boston metropolitan area, Arab immigrants and Arab Americans earned their livelihoods through self-employment or employment largely in the textile industry. Even some musicians and their families secured work in textile mills or textile adjacent businesses. Joseph Kerby, however, found employment as a stationary fireman earning about $1300 per year by 1940. His older daughter, Mary, worked in a dress factory as a seamstress and his younger daughter, Nelda, similarly toiled as a stitcher years later. Also in 1940, Joseph and Nellie’s daughter, Mary, wed musician, record label, and record shop owner, Anton Abdelahad. 

By World War II, Tony Abdelahad's record labeled helped to make him and his ensemble the most notable Arab American outfit in Boston's music scene. The label's popularity did not prohibit competing Arab American labels from signing Arab American musicians from Massachusetts.  Lawrence, Massachusetts-born Yousef Hatem signed with Farid Alam Al-Din's Alamphon Records and competed with Amer and Sana Kadaj, Elie Baida,  and Jamili Matouk for the label's best-selling artist. Nonetheless, Tony Abdelahad owned Boston metro's Arabic music scene and he played with more than his fair share of Arab, Armenian, and Greek musicians over the course of his career.

 

We have relayed the story of Anton Abdelahad in another post, but to recap quickly, he was born and raised in Boston, developed an interest in the oud at seven years old after listening to his family’s phonograph records, and became one of a few professional musicians with a primary business of owning a record shop. Anton Abdelahad, Mary, and their children, Janice, Camille, and Arthur, lived in the adjoining duplex to the Kerby’s by 1950. Ronnie Kirby, now sixteen, learned to play drums at the age of four or five. He privately learned and developed his musical chops at the Arlington Academy of Music in Arlington, Massachusetts, and alongside his brother-in-law. Tony Abdelahad first brought twelve-to-fourteen-year old Ronnie on stage and Kirby's professional career was born. Although he played percussion instruments publicly, Kirby also played lute, clarinet, and trumpet. Over the years, Ronnie was "right in the thick of things" and he watched and later played with the likes of Philip Solomon, Russell Bunai, Naim Karacand, Mike and George Hamway visited the Abdelahads and played with Tony.

Portions of Ronnie Kirby's career was interrupted by the draft and Kirby's time in the US Army from roughly 1953 to 1955, this is the same time Boston's Middle Eastern club scene emerged. The work of Amy Smith and Anne Rassmussen reminds us that Boston's Club Zara became one of the earliest of its kind known for Middle Eastern music and entertainment. Both Joseph Teebagy and Laurice "Morocco" Rizk managed Club Zara (1952-1960) and El Morocco (1955-1960). 

 

As Ronnie Kirby approached his twenty-second year, he regular accompanied Tony Abdelahad more frequently at a host of sahra, hafla, mahrajan, and other events. There was the Saint John of Damascus Church Fund sahra held at the Municipal Hall in Boston on 12 January 1956 featuring only Kirby and Abdelahad. Another gig about two months later brought together Kirby, Abdelahad, and kanoonist Joseph Catton for a bar mitzvah in Philadelphia. The snow made Tony and Ronnie’s return trip to Boston extremely hazardous. Roads made slippery by freezing rain and ice nearly doubled the time necessary to make the return trip. As spring marked the changing of seasons and the beginning of the concert, hafla, and mahrajan circuit season, Anton Abdelahad, Fred Elias, and Ronnie Kirby played at the eighth annual Club Algiers Scholarship Fundraiser on April 21, 1956. Then there was the Saint John of Damascus Church sahra on 24 May 1956 organized by Mrs. Ramza Abdelahad and Mrs. Asma Bunai, the mothers of Tony Abdelahad and Russell Bunai; Sadie Melad, Tony Abdelahad (oud), Louis Murad (violin), and Ronnie Kirby (derbake) showcased their talents as the featured act. Just 25 miles south of Boston, in Brockton, Massachusetts, the United Becherre Society of America hosted its first annual picnic on 10 June 1956, performers included Hanan, Semi Shaheen, Ronnie Kirby, Nassour Abraham, Abdullah Maroun, Melad Maloof, and others.

Club performances took Ronnie Kirby across the United States from Boston to the west coast and back. As he became more know for his derbake and conga solos, Kirby signed a contract to accompany some of the best know dancers in San Francisco. He played San Frncisco's Bimbo 365 Club. Completed a stint in Las Vegas and returned to the Bay Area to jam at Cafe Bagdad before returning to Boston. Back in Boston, Morocco, who was the club's featured dancer also, called and asked Ronnie Kirby to play at the Club Zara. For a few months, Kirby was the regular derbacke player. People packed Club Zara and patrons came from all over the United States to catch performances. Kirby than moved on to Club Khiam (1952-1972) where he enjoyed his longest stretch of twelve to thirteen years. Harry Zagora's Club Khiam became to night spot were Kirby played his longest  period. 

Like most Arab American musicians of his and previous generations, Ronnie Kirby’s primary source of income was not music. Even with all the haflat, mahrajanat, birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvah, and other occasions for celebration, playing gigs mostly on weekends could not pay the bills. In addition to laboring as a percussionist, Kirby worked a full-time job as an insurance salesman for Boston’s branch of the Cincinnati-based Union Central Life Insurance Company. Founded in 1867 by Massachusetts-born Norman Wait Harris, in fifteen years he added a bond brokerage company and in 1907 Harris Bank & Trust to his portfolio of businesses he helped establish. Chicago, New York, and Boston all boasted branches of his bank. Harris died long before his bank merged with Chicago National Bank. Ronald Kirby, as noted earlier, sold policies as an agent in the 1960s, earning Agent of the Month for the Boston office in 1968.

 

Selling insurance by day and playing derbake nights and weekends left little time for much else. In March of 1969, Tony Abdelahad, Hakki Obadia, and Ronnie played Danbury, Connecticut’s American Syrian Club hafla. By 15 November 1969, the same group plus Sajid Sharkawi jammed alongside Cleveland’s Laurice Peters for Paterson’s Salam Community Center fundraiser. Proceeds benefited a local senior center, a country club, and scholarships.

 

At least three LPs included Ronnie Kirby on derbake in their ensemble - one led by Tony Abdelahad, another by Eddie Kochak, and the last by Fred Elias. On tracks A1 thru A5 of Tony Adbelahad’s Middle East Fantasy, Kirby appears on derbake with George Hamway on tambourine, Matilda Stevens, Yvonne Rahwan, and Ramza Abdelahad on chorus vocals, and Naim Karacand, and Fred Elias on violins. It is possible that Kirby also played derbake on a few of Abdelahad’s 78 rpm releases but this was in all likelihood Mike Hamway. Next Kirby worked with Fred Elias (1922-2018), John Tatasopoulas, George Kokoras, Nick Kokoras, and Joe Kouyoumjian on the seven-track Mystical Temptations LP. Some of the most detailed biographical information on Fred Elias remains the work of Ara Topouzian and Amy Smith. Finally, in 1976 Kirby played conga drums and derbake on Eddie Kochak’s Strictly Belly Dancing Vol 4. This project used the largest of lineups including Samy Ansary, Mazin Hamdan, Fred Elias, Rami Nasser, Hakki Obadia, Bob “Ibrahim” Farrah, George Mell, and Ali Jihad Racey.

 

Ronnie Kirby (back, left)  Ramza Abdelahad, Yvonne Maalouf Rahwan, and Matilda Dada Stephens, George Hamway, Mike Hamway, Nain Karacand,  Anton Abdelahad, Philip Solomon, and Freddie Elias on Anton Abdelahad's Middle East Fantasy LP. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection.

Front Cover of Middle East Fantasy:Arabic Music by Tony Abdelahad. Ronnie Kirby appeared on most of the album's songs on the A-side including the one sampled below. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux Collection.

Ya Binty (Daughter of Mine): https://youtu.be/4eho62xDueI

The 1970s emerged as Ronnie Kirby’s most prolific decades for hafla, mahrajan, and night club appearances suggesting that in some parts of the northeast, especially Massachusetts and New Jersey, the hafla era and night club era were not always distinct and separate time periods. Tony Abdelahad, Mohammed El-Akkad, and Ronnie Kirby opened the Saint Ann’s Melkite Church hafla on 4 April 1970 in Paterson; followed by the same lineup at Asbury Park’s Empress Motel in July 1970, and a jointly-sponsored Saint Ann’s Melkite, Saint George’s Byzantine Catholic, and Sacred Heart Armenian Catholic Church mahrajan in 20 September 1970, also in Paterson. Olga “Kahraman” Agby and Tony Abdelahad headlined the Syrian American Lebanese Associated Members Community Center’s Saint Patrick’s Day hafla on 20 March 1971 backed by Mohammed El-Akkad, Raymond Nabba, and Ronnie Kirby. The same group, sans Kahraman, also rocked the July 11, 1971, SALAM Center mahrajan and closed out the SALAM Center’s “Autumn Harvest Hafla” 30 October 1971. For the next five years, at least once or twice a year, the combination of Tony Abdelahad, Mohammed El-Akkad, and Ronnie Kirby drew crowds to events sponsored by SALAM, Saint Ann’s, Saint George Orthodox Church, or some other Arab American or middle eastern organizations in New Jersey. Varying by year were singing stars Kahraman in 1972, Hanan in 1973, Laurice Peters and Kahraman in 1974, and Hanan in 1976. In 1974, Kirby also performed and headlined at the "Oriental Night Club Night"at Amaru's in Dedham owned by Michael, Lillian, Rise, and Charles Amaru.

Ronald Kirby, circa 1968. Boston Globe 13 March 1968. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

 

Gigs accompanying Tony Abdelahad, Hakki Obadia, and Mohammed El-Akkad slowed by the 1980s, and many of the Arab American musicians who recorded in the 78 rpm and subsequent 45 and 33 RPM era moved into the supper clubs, rode out the shrinking mahrajan circuit era, or did not make the transition to the cassette or Compact Disc age. Mohammed El-Akkad left the United States and passed away in 1993, Tony Abdelahad died in 1995, and Hakki Obadia lived until 2004. Although he continued to get calls from up-and-coming and more contemporary musicians to perform, Kirby retired fairly early. Playing without Philip Solomon, Naim Karacand, Mohammed El-Akkad, and Tony Abdelahad "just wasn't the same."

 

Over the past thirty-five years, Ronnie Kirby resided in Boston, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.  Still mentally sharp, quick-witted, and possessing an infectious sense of humor, Kirby still lives in West Roxbury and he turns 90 this month.

 

Thanks to Art Abdelahad and Ronnie Kirby. To see Art Abdelahad page dedicated to his father's music career, see http://www.anton-abdelahad.com/

 

 

Richard M. Breaux

 

© Midwest Mahjar