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

  Elias Abourjaily: Poet, Composer, & Singer Elias N. Aboujaily,  1957. Brazilian Immigration document. Courtesy of Ancestry.com It's the New Year!!! I can't believe it's 2025 and we've been collecting Arabic records for nearly ten years. Efforts to uncover details of some musicians' lives can be extremely difficult and influenced by several factors -surviving family members, what country, or city a musician called home, and the availability of sources. Locating sources can be especially difficult for someone who lived between several countries and cities. We acquired the LPs of Elias Abourjaily in 2023.  At the time, we knew nothing about him but we set out on a quest to find information about this little-known musician. Born in San Nicholas, Honduras or Mazraat El Nahr, Lebanon, on 11 June 1921 to Naimtallah and Badir Abourjaily, we know very little about the early years of Elias N. Abourjailly’s life. He had at least half-one sister, and possibly one brother...

  One of America’s First Child Music Groups: The Zamelkani Trio/Corey Trio Richard, Robert, & George Zamelkani performed as the Zamelkani Trio. They later became the Corey Trio.  Caravan 21 September 1961. Courtesy of Newspapers.com We have highlighted the lives, music, and careers of numerous Arab American music pioneers but few fit in the category of the musicians featured in this blog post. As someone who attempted to gather a group of my own friends aged 10 and under into a band when I was six or seven, after I received a partial drum set from my parents as a Christmas gift, I was riveted to come across the Zamelkani Trio . The group of Arab American children stood as trailblazers on the American music scene. For one, when they started performing in May 1955, the three brothers George, Robert, and Richard Zamelkani were 7, 4, and 2 1/2. Their ages made them one of the youngest singing groups in any language   in the United States. To be sure, Frankie Lymon, of Fr...

  Rev. Boutros Kahwagee (Pedro Kahwagi): The Recovered Voice of an Arab-Mexican Maronite Priest Rev. Pedro Kahwagi, c. 1939. The Day 9 May 1939. Courtesy of Newspapers.com Most of the recording artists we’ve featured on Midwest Mahjar have been people who immigrated to the United States in some capacity or were born in the United States. Exceptions, however, have included Nourhane , Sami el-Shawwa , and Prince Mohiuddin . The 78 RPM disc with singing by "Rev. Boutros Kahwagee" threw us for a loop! We pruchased the disc in December 2021. There was no indication of where Kahwagee/Kahwagi recorded any music. It could have been in Syria, Lebanon, the United States, or some other country. During an initial search, we hit an immediate dead end. There was no "Boutros Kahwagee" we could find who lived in any part of the United States. Newspapers and Ancestry.com searches revealed very little. Consequently, we put this disc to the side and focused on other musicians and rec...