A checkerboard tile floor, in a shoebox sized store in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn was the humble setting for what was the country’s oldest and largest Arabic music distributor. The store was filled with thousands of Arabic CDs, records, DVDs, and books –specializing in classical Arabic and jazz music- but as of September 26 is a boarded up shop that only exists on the Internet.
“It was like paying for rent, for no reason at all,” said Yamal, who had worked at the shop, and lives in the tenement above it. “Nobody would come in for months at a time.”
The Rashid Music Sales Co., now operated by Albert Rashid’s sons Ray and Stanley, claim the name “oldest” Arabic music distributor because of their establishment in 1934 by Albert Rashid. The store spent most of its existence and prime years on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights, a community known as a Mecca for Middle Eastern nostalgia.
Ten years ago, the boards in the windows of Rashid Music Sales Co. would have astonished the people in the neighborhood along Atlantic Avenue. According to Ray Rashid, the store was a popular cultural hub for over 60 years.
“During our time on Atlantic Ave from the years 1950 - 2000 we were a place that was revered by lovers of Arabic music, all the local Arabic singers musicians and artists wanted to hang out at our store,” said Ray Rashid, 67, a music lover and musician of the dumbak (a goblet shaped drum.) “When Arabic singers and musicians visited America for a concert or tour they always wound up at our store.”
The years 1961 through 1977 were the happiest years of my life, said Ray Rashid about the peak of his business. During this time Rashid Music Sales Co. were producing 78 RPMs as well as 45’s and Long Play Records. They also showed Arabic motion pictures (35 mm) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Detroit Institute of Arts on Sunday nights. The company had a mailing list of over 3,000 names, which included Christian, Jewish, and Muslin families in the tri-state region.
The family believes they owe their success to the Arabic film, “White Rose.” Albert Rashid knew that the soundtrack to the film would be in demand, and contacted a record company out of Cairo to purchase all of the recordings for the film. Rashid then went to present the soundtrack in cities with a large amount of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants.
The Rashid’s legacy as Arabic music providers stretches from the times of the horse drawn carriages to the Internet, where currently all of their products exist.
“We whole heartedly still maintain our two websites: Rashid.com and arabymusic.com,” said Ray Rashid. Arabymusic.com is the flashier site with all the new Pop artists and contemporary singers, while Rashid.com specializes in Classical Arabic music.
The websites claim to offer recordings found nowhere else in the country; they are still releasing historical recordings that are putting a new generation in touch with Arabic traditional music.
This is not the first change that Rashid Music Sales Co. has encountered. The first store Albert Rashid opened was on East 28th Street in Manhattan. Construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in the 1940s relocated the Arabic Market that was once on the island’s southern section. Albert Rashid then hand moved his 78 RPM records to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights where there was already a strong Arabic presence.
This was the store that became a cultural revelation. The family business had customers from Pete Seeger to Malcolm X to David Amram, an American composer and musician. At this time the Rashids were also distributing music to major retailers, Tower Records and Virgin.
Then, once again, in 2000 the Rashid’s store migrated from Atlantic Avenue to Court Street –a sizably smaller store in a less Arabic neighborhood.
“On the day we closed our store and moved to Court Street a older man came into the store, and he said he felt sad, and that he could feel the spirits of a thousand people who had been there before him,” said Ray Rashid.
The family tried to keep the spirits of the music lovers alive by stocking their new location with all Arabic genres from classical to jeel (Egyptian hip hop street music) to the currently trendy Baghdad metal exemplified by artists such as Acrassicauda. The new store was able to stock 1,200 CDs from every Arabic speaking country. Also available in the store were Arabic books ranging from poetry, novels, cookbooks, and editions of the Holy Quran (even available digitally.)
As we moved from Atlantic Avenue, the stores that were our neighbors like Near East Bakery and Dar Lebanon restaurant, as well as Clinton house, a Lebanese owned furniture store were all shutting down too, said Rashid.
Rashid remains happy for his Arabic friends who have outlasted the transition of Brooklyn Heights, in which the remnants of the Arab community are gradually dissipating into 22 tap beer bars, Urban Outfitters, and Trader Joes.
The future of Atlantic Avenue remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: In this country few people have done what the Rashids have to keep the Arabic musical legacy alive.
