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

  Returning to Our Beginnings: The Sounds of Cleveland’s Saint Elias Melkite Church Choir Saint Elias Melkite Church Choir. From "Untitled Album." At Midwest Mahjar, we have featured a host of Antiochian Orthodox, Maronite, and Melkite priests and choirs who recorded on shellac and vinyl. There have been orthodox priests Rev. Agapios Golam , Metropolitans Germanos Shahadi , Illyas T. Kurban , and Samuel David , the pioneering Maronite priests George Aziz , Fr. Pedro Kahwagi , and Rev. Paul Hage . In the Melkite tradition, our second post ever, we focused on the life and recordings of Rev. Anton Aneed . Audio recordings of church choirs, especially in the 78 rpm era, have been few and far between. Toledo’s Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Choral Society represents the sole church choir to release an early three-disc set of recorded hymns. Ironically, this historic album also features a Lebanese-Syrian choir from Ohio. This time, it’s the Saint Elias Melkite Church Choir in Clevela...

From The Derbecki Trio to the Derbecki Ensemble: The Group at the Heart of Cleveland’s Arabic Music Scene The Derbecki Trio (Eddie Hakal, Eddie Shaheen, and Labbie George) with Laurice Peters. Hafla: Echoes of the Middle East album. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Just over four years ago, back in 2021, we featured the singing of Cleveland’s Laurice Peters . Peters had recently passed away and we explored her music career beginning with her joining the Derbecki Trio in 1957. Over the years, however, between 1949 and 1980, the trio had two core members - Eddie Shaheen and Labbie George - and a host of accompanying singers and oudist who rounded out the band making it the Derbecki Ensemble . The only other musician, although not an original member, to remain with the Derbecki Ensemble for its entire recording career was Edward Hakal . We’ve back tracked to tell the story of the core members and those who came and went as time passed and other opportunities presented themselves....

  Laurice Peters: From the Derbecki Ensemble to the Queen of Cleveland's Arab American Music Scene Laurice Peters circa 1960. From The Derbecki Ensemble's Hafli: Echos of the Middle East (1960) In the recorded Arab American music scene in the Midwest, Detroit remained unmatched since Albert Rashid first established Al-Chark Records there before relocating his record operation to Manhattan and then Brooklyn, New York. We knew very little about Cleveland’s Arab American music culture until November, 2018, when we found several 33 1/3 LPs in the estate collection of Lucille Joseph Harris here in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Lucille, or Lucy, as she was better known was one of nine the children born to Shikralla Joseph and Mary Skaff Joseph in 1922. The Josephs had a history of initially working as peddlers and then they opened and operate a small grocery store not far from the family residence at 821 Windsor Street. One of the reasons Lucy’s estate contained so few Arabic records may b...