Elias Younes: An Oudist Settles in One of Dixie's Oldest Syrian/Lebanese Communities
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...