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October 5, 2004 ¿

In Brooklyn's Cobble hill neighborhood, just off Atlantic Avenue, there's a small store that's easy to overlook. But it claims to be the largest and oldest distributor of Arab music in America. The World's Adeline Sire paid a visit.

The Rashid Music store specializes in the best of Arab music from all over the world. The walls inside the Brooklyn store are decorated with glamorous black and white headshots of Arab singers and actors, musical instruments and even belly dancing paraphernalia, from beaded scarves to jewelry.

Rashid Music was founded sixty years ago by Albert Rashid. He was an entrepreneur born in Lebanon. He started an Arab film distribution business in the city of Detroit. After moving to Brooklyn in the 1950s, Rashid opened an Arab music store as well. He became a beacon of Arab culture in New York. He showed live bands and feature films at a local theater.

When Albert Rashid died in 1990, his sons took over the business. Ray Rashid has been running the company since 2001. Sitting in the back of the store, he says that when his father created the business in 1934, America was in the midst of the depression. And he wanted to do something to cheer Arab-Americans.

Rashid: There was time after the depression where people were lonely, thery were sad, they missed their own culture and he wanted to do something that could make people happy, bring their spirits up. So for that he went on to open an Arabic film business in America.

In Brooklyn, Albert Rashid mailed flyers advertising film screenings to the Arab community. That community included Christians, Muslims and Sephardic Jews. Ray Rashid remembers that hundreds of people would show up on Sunday nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to watch the feature films. They were romantic comedies, dramas and musicals made in Egypt. And they used the best talent from the Arab world, male and female singers from Egypt, Lebanon or Syria. Ray Rashid still keeps many of his father's old leaflets.

Rashid: This is a film with the singer, matinee idol, Farid El Atrache and actress Hind Rustum. And it's called "Khourouj min el janna", meaning "Driven out of Paradise." And the circular clearly states the date Sunday January 9th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the admission of 2 dollars.

Adeline Sire: Who's Hind Rustum?

Rashid: She's a famous Egyptian actress.

Sire: She's wearing a sort of blond bouffant hairdo there...

Rashid:Yes, they followed Europe in fashion.

Sire: Did you see the film?

Rashid: Yes, it's a beautiful romantic drama with Farid El Atrache singing love songs. He was really the singer of the day.

For most people in the audience, films such as "Driven out of Paradise" were a breath of fresh air, a precious chance to reconnect with one's culture. But for Ray Rashid who was born in the US, the grainy black and white Arab films were not as appealing as the vivid Technicolor American movies. And Rashid felt the same cultural distance with Arab music. Soulful laments over a bed of languishing violins... that wasn't for him.

Rashid: No! When I was 18 or 20, no I was into the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. That was the kind of music I really liked. It wasn't until I was 25 that I started liking it and playing drums and performing with other musicians.

Ray Rashid still occasionally plays Arab drums. He'll even play them in his store if you ask him. Rashid says today the heart of his CD collection is belly-dancing music. There has been a lot of interest for belly-dancing lately and Rashid says female students go to his store, or his website, to get the music they need to practice.

Rashid: Belly-dance music comes from Egypt, from Lebanon. We're bringing in music now fromTurkey. And there are performers in this country. We recently bought a CD from an Egyptian artist living in Las Vegas and one living in Canada. So we find that music can come from all over the place it doesn't have to be just Egypt or the Middle East.

In fact one of Rashid's favorite compilation series is produced in Germany. The music is recorded in Cairo with Egyptian musicians. The CD is called Oriental Fantasy.

The store carries other styles of music. From French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour to Lebanese diva Fairouz, and from Palestinian rap to Arab dance remixes. But Ray Rashid himself favors Egyptian singers of classical Arab songs.

Rashid: These are recordings here of Oum Kalsoum and Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. He's the great vocalist of the middle east. I enjoy listening to their music as well as listening to some of the newer singers... You have new pop singers, their music is uplifting if you like to dance. Amro Diab is the leader of this style.

Ray Rashid says after September 11th, there's only been moderate interest in Arab music, except for belly-dancing CDs. He says with the ongoing war in Iraq and chaos in the middle east, people are put-off by anything Arab. But Rashid says he has hopes that this will change. Rashid Music has been around for 60 years and Ray Rashid is determined to continue to promote Arab music in America.

For The World, I'm Adeline Sire, Brooklyn, New York.