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

  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...

  What’s in a Name? In Search of John Hidar, Derbecki Player A rare photo of John Hidar. Caravan newspaper. Newspapers.com Ever since we researched, composed, and posted the story of Jeanette Harouni, aka Hanan or Hanaan , in 2019, we have known the name John Hidar. According to the album credits on Hanan’s  The Arabian Nightingale  released in 1959, John Hidar [spelled Hyder] sat in as one of two featured drummers along with Ezra James as Hanan’s records transitioned from recording on 78 rpm to 33 1/3 LP. Other musicians in her ensemble included Philip Solomon , Jack Ghanaim , Ray Beilouny, Hakki Obadia, and the great oudist Wadih El-Safi. Hidar’s name rarely, if at all, comes up in discussions about Arab American music, yet his appearance of The Arabian Nightingale was not his only recorded performance. To be sure, in 1962, when Lila Stephan’s   Lila: A Thousand and One Nights  hit record stores, it too, included John “Hidar” on derbecki joined by Mohammed El...

  Anthony M. Abraham: Alkawakeb Record Corporation’s Elusive Owner and Story 78 RPM Alkawakeb record with recording by Hanan. Contains a  registered in the USA mark. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. Sometimes life drops an answer to your question in your lap and other times it is written in the stars (and the planets). Those are both true in the case of the Arab American record label Alkawakeb. For years now, the story of Alkawakeb Records, like  Maloof Phonograph Co. , A.J. Macksoud , Alamphon Records , and Arabphon Records , has eluded ethnographers and historians of Arab American cultural history and ethnomusicology. Here at Midwest Mahjar, we too, struggled to piece together the few documents that tell us about Alkawakeb Records and its owner. An internet search yielded one entry on Discogs  which notes that Alkawakeb “seems to be a US-based Lebanese record company and label releasing Lebanese and Middle Eastern music for the Arab expats in the US.” Othe...