Marko Melkon, Beyazin Adi Var/Halis Arap Kizi
Name/Title
Marko Melkon, Beyazin Adi Var/Halis Arap KiziDescription
Oud player Marko Melkon Alemsherian (May 2, 1895, Smyrna, Ottoman Empire – April 1963, Astoria, New York) was one of the pioneering figures of Middle Eastern and belly dance music in the United States. An Armenian born and raised in the cosmopolitan port city of Smyrna (now Izmir), he left the Ottoman Empire as a teenager to avoid military conscription and settled in Athens, where he worked as a musician and was already a professional performer by his late teens. Throughout much of his career, he performed under the Greek-sounding stage name Marko Melkon. Melkon arrived at Ellis Island from Piraeus, Greece, on February 10, 1920, and settled in New York the following year. On November 10, 1922, he filed his Declaration of Intent for U.S. citizenship in Boston under his birth name, Melkon Alemsherian, listing his birth date as May 2, 1894, although he later consistently gave 1895 as his year of birth. Though Armenian, he became especially known for his Turkish repertoire and was equally comfortable performing in Greek and Armenian, reflecting the multicultural traditions of Smyrna and the eastern Mediterranean. During the early 1920s, he made some of his first recordings for M. G. Parsekian's West Hoboken label and developed a close friendship with the Turkish-born Greek oudist and singer Achileas Poulos. In 1928, while visiting Greece, he married Karnoogian, an Armenian from Smyrna who had been raised in Thessaloniki. Upon their return to New York in January 1929, Melkon became closely associated with violinist Nishan Sedefjian and the Pharos Record Company. After operating the Dexter Music and Radio shop in Watertown, Massachusetts, during the early years of the Depression, Melkon resumed recording. A 1937 Victor Orthophonic recording of the Turkish song "Oğlan Oğlan," backed with an oud taksim in maqam Hijazkar, proved successful and led to the most productive phase of his career. Beginning in the early 1940s, he recorded extensively for the Balkan, Metropolitan, and Kaliphon labels, producing at least forty-eight sides under his own name and accompanying numerous performers from across the eastern Mediterranean. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Melkon was a familiar presence in New York's "Oriental" nightclubs, including the Britannia, Egyptian Gardens, and Port Said, while also performing at Armenian resorts in Asbury Park, the Catskills, and the Detroit area. The exact dates of these recordings are uncertain, but most were made in New York City between 1942 and 1951. His lively, cabaret-style oud playing and multilingual repertoire helped shape the emerging Middle Eastern nightclub and dance music scene in America. A heart attack in 1952 curtailed his performing activities, though he continued to play occasionally. His final commercial success came in 1958 with the release of Hi-Fi Adventures in Asia Minor on Decca Records, issued in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Marko Melkon died at his home in Astoria, Queens, in April 1963, leaving behind a legacy as one of the earliest and most influential Armenian-American performers of Middle Eastern music.Audio Format
78 RPM RecordRecording Type
MusicCategory
Vinyl Record