Sam Fackre: An Underrated Riqq Player and Percussionists
Sam Fackre: An Underrated Riqq Player and Percussionists
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| Rare1966 Photo of Sam Fackre. Courtesy of Skye Fackre Gibson. |
Sometimes the difficulty with locating biographical information about Arab immigrants and Arab American musicians depends on the various ways their names transliterate from Arabic to English. The Arab American English-language press, in the form of The Syrian World magazine or Caravan newspaper, used multiple spellings for a host of early and middle-period musicians. One article in the Caravan highlighted this fact noting Khouri, Khoury, Cory, Corey, Kori, Koury, Khourey, and other variants on the spelling constituted the same surname. These differences in transliteration and spelling extend beyond those we can attribute to vowel variance or double consonants – Hemway/Hamway, Bedway/Budway, Hanan/Hannan/Hanaan, and Khaddaj/Kadaj/Kaddaj. The Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System can’t always help one determine how a particular family decided to spell their name in English. Mining the historical record for some people requires a level of persistence, dedication, and creativity in the face of frustratingly, time-consuming searches. This explains why a post about Sam Fackre has been a longtime coming. A search in Discogs.com yields only “Sam Fakher” and no additional information beyond his appearance on Lila Stephan’s LP Lila: A Thousand and One Nights.
We have long suspected “Sam Fakher” the riqq or tambourine player on Lila Stephan’s LP and “Sam Fiackry” tambourine and drum player on Djamal Aslan’s Lebanon: Her Heart, Her Sounds were one and the same. Why could we not find him in any historical record? His name as it appears in the credits of Lila Stephan’s album only returned one mention in the Caravan newspaper and “Sam Fiackry” was nowhere to be found. Facher/Fakker/Fakhre/Facker…what were we doing wrong? Eventually, we tried “Sam Fackre,” cross-listed with a few other keywords and at last – BINGO! There he was.
Samuel Fackre was born Samine Fakre 18 February 1905 or 1906 in Tripoli, Syria (now Lebanon) some 50 miles north of Beirut to Kareema Fakre. After World War I, Kareema and her sons fled to France and lived in Marseille for two years. Kareema’s late husband had relatives in the United States and the Dominican Republic, so in 1922, two years before the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, Kareema and her four sons, Sam, Charles, Solomon, and Albert immigrated to the United States on board the S. S. Lapland. Other musicians born in Tripoli include Midhat Serbagi, Jamili Matouk, and Michel Akkaoui. Whether the Fackre’s knew any of these musicians or their families back in Tripoli remains a mystery.
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| Petition for Naturalization for Sam Fackre. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
By 1930, Sam and Charles toiled cutting fabric in a clothing factory. Solomon and Albert were minors but it’s unclear whether either of them enrolled in school. The family settled first in a corner building at 194 Clinton Street in the heart of Brooklyn’s Little Syria. Kareema’s brother-in-law, Toufic Fackre, worked as a manager at Tadross Wholesale Importers of Rugs and then as a writer and contributor to As-Sameer newspaper. His uncle’s prominence in Brooklyn’s Syrian circles connected Sam with Rev. Antony Bashir, Najeeb Diab (editor of Mira’at al-Gharb), and Elia abu Madey (editor of As-Sameer) in 1935. In addition to working and expanding his social circles, Sam married Victoria Adams on the 3 May 1938. By decade’s end, Sam worked as a machine operator at Albert & Albert negligee factory.
World War II found Sam in the U.S. Army, fulfilling his desire to become a naturalized citizen, and traveling south for basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Estimates suggest Sam stood among the 16,000 Arab Americans to serve in the second World War. He, along with 139 other soldiers, made history as participants in the “largest naturalization court ever held in Columbia,” South Carolina, on 21 May 1943. Lebanon gained its independence six months and a day later. Sam served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1944. Upon honorable discharge, Sam returned to Brooklyn to live with his mother and continue work as a presser in a dress factory.
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| World War II Draft Card for Sam Fackre. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
When and where Sam learned to play the tambourine and drums seems lost to time, however the peak of his musical career was the 1950s and 1960s. One of his first high-profile performances came on March 26, 1955. There, Odette Kaddo made her New York debut and was accompanied by Naif Agby, Mike Hamway, Philip Solomon, Naim Karacand, Sam, and Djamal Aslan. Fackre followed up this performance on 11 May 1955 at a benefit for the Young People Muslim Society of the Islamic Mission in America where he played alongside Mohamed El-Bakkar, Djamal Aslan, and African American saxophone player Lynn Hope. Birmingham, Alabama-born Hope was in the middle of a celebrated jazz and blues career and became the focus of several articles including one in Ebony magazine about African American coverts to Islam in the 1950s. Trumpeter Erskine Hawkins, Wilbur Harden (who played with Yusuf Lateef), and Sun-Ra all hailed from Birmingham as well. Singer and oudist Elias Younes settled in Birmingham. Our Lady of Purgatory Church of New Bedford, Massachusetts, hired Mohamed El-Bakkar, Hakki Obedia, and Sam Fackre for their annual mahrajan in July,1956. Some gigs were receptions following religious events like the one following Edward Elias Karkenny’s baptism 26 August 1956 at Joseph Sugar’s dad’s church. Saint George Orthodox Church in Canton booked Fadwa Abeid, Djamal Aslan, Naim Karacand, George David, and Sam Fackre for its hafla in Canton, Ohio, on December 30, 1956.
Of course, most of Sam Fackre’s time remained dedicated to his day job and family obligations. There were visits from his uncle Toufic who often travelled between Santo Domingo and Brooklyn and anniversary parties for his brother Charles and sister-in-law every September including their twentieth anniversary in 1957. Other non-musical performance events like birthday and graduation celebrations for Charles’ daughter Camille. Nonetheless, haflat, mahrajan, recording sessions and other music-related events kept Fackre busy on weekends and holidays.
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| Sam Fackre appears alongside Odette Kaddo and Naif Agby. Caravan, 24 March 1955. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Whether it was a mahrajan or hafla, accompanying Sam Sheheen in Utica, New York, or the SOYO hafla backing Elias Abourjaily along with Hakki Obadia and Jack Ghanaim in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Sam’s sonic legacy was captured on at least three albums - Lila Stephan’s LP Lila: A Thousand and One Nights (1960), Djamal Aslan’s Lebanon: Her Heart, Her Sounds (1959), and Odette Kaddo’s Songs of the Cedars (1960). Joining Fackre on Aslan’s LP were Mike Hamway, Joseph Sugar, Eddie Kochak, Ahmed Abdul Malik, Joseph Catton, Hakki Obadia, Fahim Sayeg, and Louis Kawam. In the same year, Odette Kaddo’s album featured Mohammed El-Akkad (kanun) Philip Solomon (violin), Hakki Obadia (violin), Semi Sheheen (violin), Joseph Sugar (double bass), Jack Ghanaim (cello), Mike Hamway (derbake), Francis Saad (derbake), Sarkis Bassim (nye), and Sam Fackre (riqq). Additional chorus members Virginia Khoury, Lila Shattahy, and Gloria Kaouk sang for the recording session.
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| Sam Fackre played riqq on Djamal Aslan's Lebanon: Her Heart, Her Sounds. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. https://youtu.be/uwyTBRNjVj0 |
After 1961, information on Sam Fackre becomes immensely scarce. Brooklyn, Detroit, and other larger Arab American communities experienced an increase in populations as refugees fled Palestine between 1947 and 1965. Congress passed large-scale immigration reforms and the terribly restrictive immigration quotas enforced since 1924 expanded the number of allowable immigrants and eliminate nationality, racial, and ethnic quotas favoring northern and western Europeans. Sam’s mother, Kareema, and his uncle, Toufic, passed in 1967 and 1968 respectively. Within five years, Sam reportedly died suddenly on 5 May 1973. No wife or children appeared in his obituary and surviving him were his three brothers.
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| Toufic and Sam Fackre, circa 1966 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Courtesy of Skye Fackre Gibson. |
Today, when most Arabic music listeners, researchers, and ethnomusicologists think of extraordinary riqq players and percussionists a few names come to mind. There was, of course, Michel Merhej Baklouk; the famed riqq player who performed with Fayrouz, Simon Sheheen, and became a founding member of the Arabic Music Retreat. He passed a few years ago in 2020. There is Johnny Farraj, the Lebanese-born, Palestinian riqq player, percussionist, scholar, author, and creator of Maqam World. Perhaps now musicians like Ronnie Kirby and Sam Fackre may take their rightful place among these better-known Arabic music percussionists.
Special thanks to Frederick Simon, Kirk Fackre, and Skye Fackre Gibson.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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