Greater Syrian Diaspora at 78RPM: Little Sami

posted on: Mar 10, 2021

By: Richard M. Breaux/Arab America Contributing Writer

What do you do when you find several dozen 78 rpm records all in Arabic and you can neither read, nor speak the language? You research the musicians and record labels and write about them.…at least that’s what Arab America contributing writer, Richard Breaux did. The result is bound to teach you something about Arab American history and heritage in the first half of the 20th Century. Arab America highlights some of the well-known and lesser-known Arab American musicians profiled on this series. This week’s article features Arab American music legend, Little Sami.

You’ve seen his name several times before. Mostly on some of the Arabic-language 78 rpm records on the Orient Records label.  Orient Records famously printed red, orange, yellow, green, white, or light-blue labels with a swan swimming on the water in a black circle at the top center of its label. We still don’t know much about Orient Records, but it should not be confused with the label created by well-known Arab American composer and former Maloof Records owner, Alexander Maloof.

For years, some presumed that this stage name “Little Sami” signified a relationship with Lebanese violin virtuoso Sami al Shawa, but the only connections we know of for sure are that Egyptian-born Fadel Antoun Shawa (b. 1904) who traveled between the Middle East, Brazil, and the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. Of course, Little Sami knew Sami al Shawa and a host of other Arab American musicians from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. His career reached its height between 1955 and 1965; although he performed much of his life in the United States.

“Little Sami” was born Sami Michael Jourdak to Micchel N. Jourdak and Mariam Koury Jourdak (sometimes spelled Gerdak) on 8 August 1928 in French mandate-controlled Lebanon. He was one of at least four children. He began playing oud and derbekke as a child and immigrated to the United States on 16 April 1947. Like Amer and Sana Khadaj, he came to the United States at the beginning of the so-called second wave of Arab immigrants. Although the second wave tended to be more Muslim, and some like Khadaj were Druze, Jourdak was a Melkite Catholic. Sami told immigration officials at Ellis Island that he was an actor. It is possible he had appeared in Arabic-language film or played music in an ensemble for a film’s musical score before coming to the Americas.

Sami wed his first wife Freda Cecilia on 10 March 1949 in Dillon, South Carolina. According to court records, however,  he deserted his first wife, separated from her in November 1949, and a judge granted them a legal divorce in July 1954. At around this time, Little Sami’s career began to take off.

Few Arab American musicians managed to find their way onto the television during this time, but in October 1954, Ray Beilouny, John Hydar, Naif Agby, Marie Tashji, and Little Sami appeared on the Nancy Craig TV show on Channel 7 in New York. In December of that same year, Little Sami appeared at the All-Star New Year’s Eve Party in the Grand Ballroom Naim Karacand, Philip Solomon, Ray Beilouny, Leon Abood, Mike Hamway and Moses Kalooky. Russel Bunai, Fadwa Abeid, and Hanan sang and the others played and sang individually and collectively.  Non-stop dancing carried the night and the event lasted well into the wee hours until 5:30 am the next morning.

The New Year brought new and increased opportunities to play live at various events in the Midwest and on the East coast. On 22 January 1955, Sami, John Fayed, and Anton Hage provided the musical entertainment for the Miami Syrian-Lebanon Club’s gala hafli. Later in the month, Sami received an offer from Pete Butrus Simrany, owner of the Eastern Star Restaurant at 205 Atlantic Avenue, to perform every Friday of the year at 10 p.m. “with accompanying musicians.” This was good, steady, reliable work not available to most Arab American musicians at the time. The newspaper advertisement encouraged patrons to “Eat Where the Stars Eat” and “debkee to your heart’s content.”

We know very little about Orient Records as it was a low-budget operation largely known and patronized by Arab American communities in the 1950s. Some people believe it was owned and operated by Albert Rashid, the film and record distributor and store owner who moved from Detroit to Brooklyn. Little Sami recorded a number of songs with Orient Records including “Romanak,” #170A & #170B, “Kont Zageer” #172A & 172B, and “Ya Leil Malak” #215A, and “Alyake” #215B. Orient Records also sold recordings of single songs from Arabic films similar to today’s soundtracks.

By 26 January 1956, Sami, John Fayed, and Anton Hage returned to the annual Syrian-Lebanon Club hafli in Miami. The group performed an additional charity event before their return to Brooklyn but added Odette Kaddo, Nasser Kaddo, and Moosa Kalooky to the performance. This time, it did not take an entire year before they got back to Florida, as Sami, Hanan, Anoun Hage, and Joe Budway journeyed to Jacksonville and entertained over 700 people at the Florida State Syrian-Lebanon American Clubs convention in May. The Florida Syrian-Lebanon Club was a member of the larger Southern Federation of Syrian Lebanese American Clubs, a non-religious non-politically affiliated group established to preserve Syrian-Lebanese culture and heritage back in 1931. Little Sami would have only been two years old at the time of the federation’s founding.

Sami continued to play on the hafli and mahrajan circuit into the 1960s when he joined up with Mohammed El-Bakkar for the Dances of Port Said album as a part of El-Bakkar’s ensemble. Known to his friends and as a guy who constantly told jokes, influenced by his relationship with el-Bakkar, and following the fad of popularly recorded belly dance albums, in 1965, “Little Sami” finally dropped the “Little” moniker and released Sami Jourdak Plays Music for Belly Dancers – a 33 1/3 rpm project.

The belly dance music craze allowed Arab American musicians to remain active, helped musicians pay their bills, and gave musicians time to create music, however, what was once a matter of cultural affirmation and retention increasingly played on exaggerated, bordering on degrading Arab stereotypes. Bolstered by Hollywood’s obsession with negative and unflattering Middle Eastern, Arab, and Islamic caricatures, record and music companies certainly paid some musicians, but Arab American musicians had less control over how their music was marketed. Partially-veiled women with see-thru pants or men in satiny turbans, smoking water pipes or with water pipes as props appear on album cover after album cover.

By the 1970s and 1980s, Sami Jourdak’s star faded. Many of his contemporaries retired. Some, like al-Bakkar and Amer Khadaj, met untimely deaths. Sami Jourdak married and divorced two more times in the 1980s. His last marriage was to Wahiba El-Shoveiri. Sami retired to his old stomping grounds first in Miami, then near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. By the 2000s, Sami’s sense of humor had not diminished, he spent a good amount of time betting on horses at race tracks like the historic Gulfstream Park. Sami Jourdak, known among 78 rpm Arab American music collectors as Little Sami, died at the Catholic Hospice at Holy Cross Hospital on 13 October 2018. He was 90 years old.

Thank you to George Farah for confirming the “Oriental Records” label.