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

  The Music of John Fayad: La Voz del Desierto Photo of John Fayad. circa 1975. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Before writing this profile, I could find very little information about John Fayad in one place. I first came across his name in 2019 when I purchased two 78 rpm records on the Voz del Desierto label. Searches online and in Discogs yielded albums on the Piramade label also named Voz del Desierto. No 78s on the label emerged in my results signaling the rarity of the two 78 rpm discs likely recorded and pressed at the height of Fayad’s career in the 1950s. Fayad’s oud playing is stellar. Remarkably as good as any of his contemporaries in the United States or Latin America. But available government records suggest Fayad remained a roaming musician for most of his life. For short periods he resided in Havana, Miami, Belize City, and Mexico City, but he was never in any of these places long enough to leave anything but a smattering of documents. He should also not b...

Emil Kasses: From the Tip of Florida All the Way Up to Canada and Various Haflis and Mahrajans Along the Way Emil J. Kasses, Norwalk H.S. Yearbook, 1946. p. 64. Courtesy of Ancestry.com Some of the best known, first generation US-born, Arab American musicians of the 78 RPM era included the likes of Anton Abdelahad and Eddie Kochak . Both these musicians rose to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s – Abdelahad on his self-titled record label and Kochak on Nilephon Records- and both became extremely popular on the hafli and mahrajan circuits in the 1950s and 1960s. Emil Kasses (Kassis or Kassas) stands out as one of their less well-remembered, yet equally talented peers, whose career spanned from the 1940s well into the 1990s. Despite Emil’s popularity among Arab Americans of multiple generations, his 78 RPM disc are rare, although not considered valuable. That we can document, Kasses recorded two songs on four sides of his personal Emil Kasses record label #251 A-B “Mo’...