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

  Only Traces of Evidence Remain Highlighting the Illusive Career and Life of Philip Catzeflis Philip Catzeflis "Nasheed No. 1". #7005 A. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Collectors of 78 rpm phonograph records, and more specifically, Arabic-language records produced and released for Arabic-speaking audiences in the United States are without a doubt familiar with Richard K. Spottswood’s seven volume Ethnic Music on Record . A monumental feat of discipline-altering proportions, Ethnic Music on Record documents the cylinder and phonographic records made in the United States from the 1890s until mid-1942 by various so-called ethnic and linguistic minorities. Spottswood’s work remains foundational to study of non-English language phonograph records in the US before World War II, and those interested in Arabic-music during this period would be remiss to ignore it. It is Spottswood’s Volume 5, that many collectors first encounter the names of Victor, Columbia, Maloof, and ...

  On Radio & Record: The Pioneering Piano Music of Elizabeth Awad Elizabeth Awad, 1925. In 1928 and 1929, Columbia Records 50000-X series of Arabic-language 78-rpm shellac discs recorded in the United States. Today, collectors rarely, if ever come across these exclusive discs. A few by Aziza Helmi, Prince Mouhadin , and Nahim Simon, have surfaced but others remain rare and/or unseen by living collectors and researchers. One musician we’ve discussed before, in our profile on Abraham Messadi , was oudist Toufic Moubaid. We mentioned the musician Moubaid collaborated with on radio and several early recordings, Elizabeth Awad, in passing. This post, however, hopes to shine a spotlight on pianist Elizabeth Awad.  Before they made their way to Columbia Studios at 233 Broadway in Manhattan’s Woolworth Building, Toufic Moubaid and Elizabeth Awad regularly appeared together on radio and one of the first radio programs to feature Arab immigrant and Arab American musicians on the a...

  Elvira Helal: A Forgotten Brooklyn-born Opera Singer  Gets Some Guidance Elvira Helal University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries. Photo by James Abresch. Courtesy of University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida. Permission granted. While several Arab American musicians during the 78 RPM era had formal training and performed classical Arab music few with the exception of Fadwa Fedora Kuban , Midhat Serbagi , and Leon Nahmee ventured into the area of opera. Even among this group of performers, Elvira Helal stood out from amongst her peers. We have had no luck locating a recording of her voice, though the various opera in which she performed were immortalized on shellac and wax by some of the world's leading opera outfits. Elvira Helal was born to Grace and Leon Abraham Helal on 4 September 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, in burrough's Little Syria neighborhood. Both of Elvira’s parents were born in Aleppo, Syria in 1880 or 1882 and 1890 and the couple married approximate...