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

Rev. George Aziz Rev. George Aziz, 1903, Buffalo, New York.  Buffalo Courier , 6 December 1903. Courtesy of Newspapers.com For years music historians and ethnomusicologist have claimed that pianist, composer, and later record company founder, Alexander Maloof held significance in part because his Victor #17443 A & B, A Trip to Syria and Al-Ja-Za-Yer, represented the first record marketed to an Arabic-speaking audience. This claim took hold because Maloof recorded on Victor before any other known Arab American or Arabic-speaking musician in the United States. Careful examination of the physical 78 rpm disc, however, demonstrably proves this assertion to be inaccurate. All known copies of Victor #17443A & #17443B, are completely in English. There is neither a combination of Arabic and English or only Arabic on the well-known and sometimes photographed label. We know that when Victor wished to sell songs to an Arab American fan base, it had the ability a...

Elie Younes:  An Oudist Settles in One of Dixie's Oldest Syrian/Lebanese Communities Elie Younes, 1947. Brazilian Travel document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com In the last four years, we have seen hundreds of Arab and Arab American 78s from throughout the diaspora. Because certain types of music, like the well-known and improvisational taqsim, traditionally don’t last for the typical 3 to 5 minutes consistent with 78 rpm technology, dozens, if not scores of artists, recorded single songs on double-sided discs. Some artists may have even gone as far as to record a single song on two double-sided discs. Nonetheless, before now, we had never come across an Arab or Arab American 78 rpm album set by a single popular artist (there are a few 78rpm album sets by priests and church choirs).  This particular set contains five (it may have contained six given the number of sleeves in the album booklet) 78 rpm records recorded by Elie Younes. The self-pr...