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

Najeeba Morad (Singer, musician)   Publicity photo for Najeeba Morad Karam that also appeared on Morad Records, The Caravan , 14 February 1954. Newspapers.com Mary Najeeba (Najeebe/Nageeba) Morad Karam (1911-2004) was born Mary Morad to immigrants Nakhli/Michael and Nazera Morad on June 28, 1911 in New York City. Nakhli had been a musician and played with an Egyptian troupe. He claimed to have been influenced by Sheik Salama al Higazi. Within two years of her birth, her parents moved to Boston which had the second largest Syrian-Lebanese community in the United States at the time. The Morads immigrated to the United States in 1909 from Mradiyeh, Lebanon, as the legal system in the United States vacillated on the question of whether Syrian Lebanese immigrants could become naturalized US citizens. Mary was the eldest of fourteen children. Her parents like many entrepreneurial families from the Middle East operated a grocery store by 1920 and a laundry by 1930....

Lillian “Leila” A. Mazloom (Musician, singer) Lillian Mazloom, 1945, G.A.R. Memorial High School, Garchive Yearbook. Ancestry.com If you collect or have any 78 RPM Arabic records in the United States, you’ve no doubt come across or seen records on the Maloof, Macksoud , or Alamphon labels. Much more rare, but not as valued by collectors, are records on the Mazloom label (there were likely only two discs ever released). We’ve done some digging after acquiring two Mazloom discs and here’s what we’ve uncovered… Lillian “Leila” A. Mazloom was one of seven born 7 May 1927 to George and Rose Unis Mazloom in Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania. George and Rose immigrated separately from Greater Syria, now Lebanon. Rose came to the United States as an infant in 1892/93 and George arrived in 1902/03 almost ten years later, the couple married in 1909 and had four children before Lillian was born. Lillian and her sister Rosanna took interest in music while they were young ...

Jamili Matouk or Jameeleh Matouk or Jamileh Matouk (Musician, Dancer, Singer) Jamili Matouk Deep, 1956 Next to Sana Kadaj , Jamileh Matouk or Jamili Matouk or Jameeleh Matouk (1911-1997) became one of Alamphon Records’ top-selling female vocalists in the late 1940s. Born in Tripoli, Lebanon 25 February 1911, we know very little about Matouk’s parents who seemed to have followed those members of the mahjar who immigrated to Brazil and Argentina. Matouk’s brothers Thomas, Anis, and Charles immigrated to the United States in 1912, 1920, and 1923 respectively.  Her sister, Najla, went to Canada. Anis married and settled down with his wife and worked as a tailor in Brooklyn. Thomas settled in Brooklyn, but divorced his wife, and Charles remained single for the time, but later married and moved to Florida. Jamileh arrived in the United States 24 November 1930 from Santos, Brazil after a stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on what appears to have been a to...

Elias Louis Nassour Wardiny (Oud, Singer, Producer, Owner) This lone image of Louis Wardini, 6 September, 1935, Indianapolis Star . Louis Nassour Wardiny  (sometimes Ilyas Wardini) was born 5 March 1894 in Beirut, Greater Syria (today Lebanon) to Nassour and Clemence Wardini . Some documents suggest he immigrated to the United States around 1904 with his family and, for part of his life, lived in Little Syria in Lower Manhattan. Other documents mark his arrival in April 1913, coming to the US from Beirut to La Harve and then New York City. Immigration documents note the change of name from Elias to Louis and give his occupation as both bookkeeper and singer at various points. In 1917, when the Victor Talking Machine Company still expressed interest in Arab recording artists, Wardiny debuted with 12 sides on six records. While Arab immigrant market clambered to hear more from Wardiny, Victor executives soon shifted direction away from its Arabic and Greek immigr...

Braheen "Edward Abdo" Urban (musician) Braheen Edward Abdo, 1936. Photo courtesy of the Des Moines Register , 8 May 1940. Braheen Edward Abdo was born in Douma, Greater Syria, in 25 February 1902. His family, which included four brothers, George Abdo, Thomas Abdo, Andrew Abdo, and Nicolas Abdo, and three sisters, immigrated to the United States in 1912. For a few years, the family lived in New York. In the 1920s, he recorded a host of sides for the Maloof Phonograph Company label under the name E. Abdo. After recording for Maloof, the Abdo’s relocated to Los Angeles, California. Eddie performed in San Francisco and Hawaii in 1926. E. Abdo, "Bjeel Il Ishreen -The 20th Generation" Maloof #964 https://soundcloud.com/user-387335530/maloof-964-bjeel-il-ishreen-e-abdo-1927 Recordings as E. Abdo on the Maloof Record label, 1920s. Photo courtesy of Richard M. Breaux.  https://soundcloud.com/user-387335530/ibrahim-abdo-tiara-maloof-95...