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

  “PRINCE” Albert Joseph: An Arab American Record Shop Dealer in Western Pennsylvania Aided Palestinian Refugees Alamphon Record with Albert Joseph dealer/seller stamp. Courtesy of Frank J. Dalton. Back in November 2020, we received a generous donation of about ninety 78-rpm Arabic records from retired dentist Joe Corey, who grew up in West Virginia. Mr. Corey contacted us because his friend, fellow church member, and labor lawyer, David Khorey, came across some of our Arab American musician profiles featured on the Arab America news website. Over dinner, and pleasant discussion about Arab American history, David asked me, “Do you know how people got their records?”   I replied, “Some people ordered records from a catalogue and had them shipped from New York. Also, dealers likely sold records as vendors at regional SOYO meetings, mahrajan, hafla, and regional Syrian-Lebanese club conventions.” He then recalled a well-known vendor from his youth in western Pennsylvania who dre...

  Jalil Azzouz: A Palestinian Oudist at Home on the Midwest Mahrajan Circuit Jalil Azzouz, 1956. Photo courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. The second wave of Arab immigration to the United States began after World War II, which officially ended in September 1945. The government continued to enforce quotas on immigrants to the US from Middle Eastern countries. Even immigrants to the US from Palestine, which came under British mandate rule, faced restrictions. No matter Great Britain’s ally status during the second World War, nor small changes in the ability of certain groups of immigrants newly permitted to become naturalized citizens, the second wave of Arab emigrants, especially those from Palestine and Jordan, became more visibly present in their sponsorship of events on the eastern, midwestern, and southern hafli and mahrajan circuits. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Palestinian youth grew increasing impatient with the British Mandate government’s  persecution of P...

For the Children at St. Jude - Toufic T. Barham  and Danny Thomas (musician, Oud)  Toufic Barham with Danny Thomas, photo courtesy of Ancestry.com Toufic T. Barham was born to Abraham Barham and Mariam Hajal Barham 10 August 1908 in Jerusalem, Palestine. He immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island with his brothers Ezzat, Daoud, Chekri, and his sister-in-law, Julie Barham in 1920 on board the Rochembeau via Le Havre, France. The family first resided in New York’s Little Syria, and Toufic met and married his future wife, Alice, around May 1932. He and Alice had Toufic “Thomas”Jr. , Barbara, Amil, and Yvonne over the next eight years. After Barbara was born in 1935, the family relocated to Detroit, Michigan where Toufic’s found work as a cleaner and restaurant owner before his career skyrocketed.  Toufic Barham and group played a host of Mahrajan hosted by the Lebanon Syrian American Club.  Sitting (L to R) Garbis Bakarjian, Arno...

George F. Berbari (Musician, Oud) George F. Berbari, photograph courtesy of David Bailey (George's grandson) Just ten miles north of Beirut, in the coastal city of Sahel Alma, near Jounieh, Fayad and Margo Berbari witnessed the birth of one of at least four of their children, George F. Berbari , in 1892 (although his WWI Draft card reads 1896). Silk production and juice production fueled the city’s economy in the late nineteenth century and it was one of the earliest cities in Greater Syria to commercially produce ice. Fayad Berbari was a silk merchant. Competition in the global silk markets drove down the value of Ottoman-produced silk and this combined with population growth and changes in conscription and tax policies served as a catalyst to Greater Syrian emigration. George was a Maronite cantor for a bishop in Lebanon in his youth. By 1910, George and his cousin Manuel followed George's brother Nicholas to the United States. George was one o...

Amer Kadaj and Sana Kadaj (Musicians) Sana and Amer Khaddaj/Kadaj in 1956, from the 5 June 1956 The Post-Star (Glenn Falls, NY) Amer Kadaj (1921-1979 ) was born to Assad and Fawz Kadaj 10 August 1921 in, what is today, Kfar Matta, Lebanon. He developed as a musician at a fairly young age after listening to both live music and his parents' Gramophone records. Sana Kadaj (1919-1992) [also known a Adla] was born 14 June 1919 in Bhamdoun, Lebanon. The Kadajes performed separately before they married and eventually appeared onf the Arabic service program that was a part of the Voices of America Radio series from 1942 to 1945. It is here that they first came to know Farid Alam al-Din , who also went by Fred Alam and owned the Brooklyn, New York-based Alamphon Records . Sana & Amer Kadaj perform, courtesy of Lila Kadaj. In 1947, Amer and Sana left Palestine to come to the US, for what they believed at the time, would be a short trip. As war beca...