My blogs

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

About me

Location	La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States
Introduction	Created by Richard M. Breaux, Midwest Mahjar© is a blog dedicated to uncovering the stories of Arab American musicians and music of in the 78-rpm record era. This period spans roughly from 1900 to 1961. The purpose of our site is to provide mostly biographical information on the men and women who recorded or founded record labels for an Arab American audience. It turns out, many of these musicians also performed at haflas and mahrajans in the United States during the same era, and most lack profiles online since they were Americans who primarily spoke Arabic. While our focus is Arab musicians who came to live in or were born in the United States, sometimes blog posts about recorded musicians of Arab descent, favorites of Arab Americans, who lived in mashriqi or other mahjari countries may be posted. Our site is called Midwest Mahjar© because four of the five collections of Arabic-language 78s we’ve purchased were found in the estates of people of Syrian or Lebanese descent in La Crosse or Janesville, Wisconsin. In total, I have approximately 250- 300 Arab and Arab American records.

Location

La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States

Introduction

Created by Richard M. Breaux, Midwest Mahjar© is a blog dedicated to uncovering the stories of Arab American musicians and music of in the 78-rpm record era. This period spans roughly from 1900 to 1961. The purpose of our site is to provide mostly biographical information on the men and women who recorded or founded record labels for an Arab American audience. It turns out, many of these musicians also performed at haflas and mahrajans in the United States during the same era, and most lack profiles online since they were Americans who primarily spoke Arabic. While our focus is Arab musicians who came to live in or were born in the United States, sometimes blog posts about recorded musicians of Arab descent, favorites of Arab Americans, who lived in mashriqi or other mahjari countries may be posted. Our site is called Midwest Mahjar© because four of the five collections of Arabic-language 78s we’ve purchased were found in the estates of people of Syrian or Lebanese descent in La Crosse or Janesville, Wisconsin. In total, I have approximately 250- 300 Arab and Arab American records.