Elias Abourjaily: Poet, Composer, & Singer
Elias Abourjaily: Poet, Composer, & Singer
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| Elias N. Aboujaily, 1957. Brazilian Immigration document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
It's the New Year!!! I can't believe it's 2025 and we've been collecting Arabic records for nearly ten years. Efforts to uncover details of some musicians' lives can be extremely difficult and influenced by several factors -surviving family members, what country, or city a musician called home, and the availability of sources. Locating sources can be especially difficult for someone who lived between several countries and cities. We acquired the LPs of Elias Abourjaily in 2023. At the time, we knew nothing about him but we set out on a quest to find information about this little-known musician.
Born in San Nicholas, Honduras or Mazraat El Nahr, Lebanon, on 11 June 1921 to Naimtallah and Badir Abourjaily, we know very little about the early years of Elias N. Abourjailly’s life. He had at least half-one sister, and possibly one brother, but it seems he intentionally attempted to obscure details of his formative years. At some point, he and oudist Michel Safi attended the National Lebanese Higher Conservatory of Music. Whether they attended before or during renown composer Anis Fuelihan’s tenure at the Conservatory from1953 to 1960 remains unclear. We’re equally unsure about whether Safi and Abourjaily attended the Conservatory at the same time.
At some point in his life, Elias Abourjaily gained fame on the airwaves as a radio, television, and film personality in Beirut. Inquiries into which films or radio and television programs Abourjaily appeared yielded no information. His living relatives and associates have virtually no knowledge of this time in his life. Before coming state-side, however, he had married Zebieda Zhalabi, born 18 March 1921, in Syria.
Countries where fans spoke a combination of Arabic and Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese, or Arabic and English comprised the majority of places Elias Abourjaily and Michel Safi toured in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The duo spent several months performing in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. In Brazil, Abourjaily appeared in Rio and Sao Paulo, cities with some of the largest Arabic-speaking populations. According to record collector Henrique Tabchoury, Abourjaily also recorded songs for the Brazilian label, Yazigi Records. There were reportedly a few bookings in Mexico City, and Buenos Aires, before the two headed to Chile. From Santiago, Abourjaily and Safi jetted to Miami on Honduran-based Transportes Aereos Nacionales flight #600. In Miami, the duo met musician Mike Shashaty and temporarily stayed at Miami’s once-famous Paramount Hotel. They visited Los Angeles, Kansas City, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Saint John and Saint George Orthodox churches co-sponsored the hafli in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, August 14, 1960.
If Abourjaily visited the United States before December 2, 1959, then we’ve seen no record of it, but by October 1960, the Caravan announced that Elias Abourjaily and oudist Michel Safi appeared for their first time in Brooklyn at Our Lady of Lebanon Church on Saturday, October 29, 1960. The headliner for this hafli was Olga “Kahraman” Agby. Alamphon Records star Jamili Matouk delivered an on-demand performance as well. Abourjaily and Safi, according to reports, “proved beyond any doubt their great talents” because Abourjaily had written, composed, and performed all original work in Arabic. Within a week’s time, Abourjaily placed an ad in the Caravan, describing himself as a “Poet, Composer, and Singer All IN ONE! Every Song is a New Song!” Meanwhile, the singer Hanan hired Michel Safi to play violin at her daughter Claire’s birthday.
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| Ad to book Elias Abourjaily, Caravan, October 20, 1960. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
With the arrival of 1961, Abourjaily and Safi booked gigs along the east coast and Midwest hafla circuit for the entire year. There was the Syrian Lebanon American Club’s event led by Hanan, Joe Budway, Mike Shashaty, and Michel Safi, 3 February; Abourjaily’s solo work at the Saint George’s Orthodox Church in Cleveland, Ohio, February 5, 1961; and the Aleppo Foundation’s celebration February 25 featuring Kahraman, Hakki Obadia, Jack Ghanaim, Eddie Kochak, and Elias Abourjaily, honoring the United Arab Republic’s General Counsel, George Tomeh. Danbury’s Saint Ann’s and Saint John Church booked Djamal Aslan, Sam Fackre, and Elias Abourjaily for April 16 and Allentown, Pennsylvania hired Abourjaily and his Orchestra Ensemble later in the year for its annual hafli in October.
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| Elias Abourjaily and Michel Safi, First Brooklyn Gig, Caravan ,October 13, 1960. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Looking to build a career in the United States similar to that he enjoyed in Lebanon, Elias Abourjaily cut to albums - “Belly, Belly: Music from the Middle East” and “I Remember Lebanon” on New York’s Fiesta label. The Fiesta Record Company emerged as the brainchild of musician, composer, and record producer, Jack Cooper, who went by the stage name Jose Morand. Both of Bourjaily’s LPs sold moderately well, although it appears “I Remember Lebanon,” recorded in Europe, sold better. Fiesta provided no liner notes or information, adding to the complete absence of publicly available sources offering insight into Abourjaily’s life and career. Despite the publicity he received in the Caravan, Albert Rashid’s Brooklyn shop, Rashid Sales, did not stock or sell Abourjaily’s Fiesta-label albums. Some in Arab America’s music community questioned the quality control of Fiesta artists and products, so Abourjaily’s career may have suffered from this association. Several Arab American musicians voiced concern about the commercialization of Middle Eastern music and dance. The backlash against commercialization may explain why he tried his hand at the restaurant/club business a few years later.
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| Elias Abourjaily Orchestra, Belly, Belly: Music from the Middle East. |
After touring multiple regions in the United States, Elias Abourjaily and his wife, Zebeida who went by Leyla, settled in Los Angeles. The Arab American music scene on the West Coast had almost a completely different set of star musicians than the East Coast or Midwest. Louis Shelby, Danny Thomas, Chick Kahla, Najeeb Khoury, Maroun Saba, Leo Saad, and Saadoun Al-Bayati emerged as the kings of the Pacific Coast. Communities here had their own hafla, maharajan, and recording circuit that rivaled the Atlantic Coast. To be sure, Mustafa D. Siam’s Arab Tunes was to the western United States, what Anthony M. Abraham’s Alkawakeb was to the eastern United States.
Michel Safi, Elias Abourjaily’s old music companion, followed a different career trajectory that continued to center on Arabic music, but in the Northeast and Canada rather than Los Angeles. Safi was born 11 March 1928 in Kfour, Lebanon, to Nicholas and Isabelle Safi. By the time he reached nineteen years of age, he already worked as a professional violinist/oud player and had traveled to Brazil and twelve years later, in 1959, he flew with Elias Abourjaily to Miami from South America. Much of 1960 and 1961, he continued to tour and collaborate with Abourjaily; however, they began to go their separate ways beginning in late 1961. In fact, Safi was pulled into Canadian court when the Egyptian dancer Fawzia’s act was said to be indecent. The charges for indecency were later dropped and case dismissed after a courtroom dance and music demonstration. By January 6, 1962, Safi joined George Sawaya at the Sahara and one year later he played the Harem Room of Montreal’s Latin Quarter with trio members Kamel Selim and Joe Saliba. Spring until July 1963 found Safi at Lou Black’s Living Room in Montreal accompanying dancers Amira Nasser, Princess Aisha, Delila, and Shazaar. All were part of the cast of “Bellyrina: A Night in a Turkish Harem Revue.” Safi returned to Lou Black’s with the same show in July 1966 and headlined a new show “Scandal ‘68” at the same Montreal venue in November 1967. By 1970, he performed “Harem Review” at Kingston, Ontario’s Shamrock Hotel, the Ambassador Hotel in Ottawa, and in 1971 at Hamilton, Ontario’s Hanrahan’s and from June to September 1973 at Toronto’s Blue Orchid. Finally, 1980 and 1981 took Safi to Buffalo, New York where he returned to ensemble gigs. He appeared with Violet Salameh, Abdullah Salameh, Hamid Khafaji, Omar Adham, and Mohamed Sadek at a hafli in Hamburg, New York, and with Ali Herajla, Hamid Khafaji, and Ali Beree at the same location one year later.
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| Michel Safi "Turkish Scandal '68" ad, Montreal Gazette November 24, 1967. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Back in Los Angeles, Elias Abourjaily submitted paperwork for a license to open the Cedars Restaurant at 5166 Hollywood Boulevard in 1968. How long this restaurant remained open is uncertain. Elias and Leyla lived a street over on Kingsley Drive. By the late 1970s, Abourjaily sold the business and moved five miles away. Today, there is a Hookah Bar at the former Cedars location in a Thai American neighborhood bordering Hollywood’s Little Armenia.
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| Elias Abourjaily creates the Cedars Restaurant. Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. March 8, 1968. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
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| Matchbook from Elias Abourjaily's Cedars Restaurant in Hollywood, California. Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Elias and Zebeida Abourjaily applied to become naturalized citizens of the United States in 1977 and 1978 respectively. On his petition, Elias listed Honduras rather than Lebanon as his birth country. Ironically, one of the witnesses to sign Elias’ petition for naturalization was Louis Shelby’s brother-n-law Robert Ansara. Immigration officials granted the Abourjailys citizenship within days of each other in August 1978.
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| Elias Abourjaily's Naturalization Petition, Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Perhaps something should be said about the contradictory information contained in Elias Abourjaily's immigration document to Brazil and his naturalization document in the US filed almost 20 years later. On the earlier document, Abourjaily listed Lebanon as his birthplace but on the US document he notes Honduras as his birthplace. One has to wonder which of these is most accurate? Did Abourjaily not list Lebanon as his birthplace because of perceptions about the Lebanese Civil War in the US? Did Honduras not carry the same stigma? Had he learned later in life that he was actually born in Honduras? We can't say. His wife's naturalization petition, filed within months of his own, shows Syria as her place of birth. It is likely a question that will remain unanswered.
Zebeida “Leyla” Abourjaily lived thirteen more years and she died 19 January 1991; Elias died 9 May 2006. The two of them are buried side-by-side in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California - just five miles from where they operated the Cedar Restaurant.
Special Thanks to Henrique Tubchoury, Roxxanne Shelaby, Ray Rashid, & Barbara Al-Bayati
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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