A lot of very nice graphics have come into the ARC office recently and will be a part of Muslim World Music Day (sure wish we had the recordings also!) on April 12.   Here are a few nice ones.

Chris Bishop, a record collector who originally contacted us about an unusual 45 insert, will provide a few Turkish record images, these circa 1967…

I recently discovered the South African Audio Archive,  “…a non-profit project developed by flatinternational. This website is dedicated to establishing a visual archive of rare and sometimes unusual South African audio documents as artifacts.”  Swell stuff here and they will be sending along their holding on Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and other artwork from recordings created by Muslims hailing from South Africa.   By the way there are over  30  Abdullah Ibrahim recordings at the ARC that will be included in the MWMD database.   I’ve loaded in a few covers from South African pressings below.

In Jordan I discovered shelf-loads of LPs, 78s and 45s.  Here’s a row of the seven-inch singles…

And this from our collection – by the revered Egyptian singer,  Oum Kalsoum   (…also Umm, Um or Om; Kulthum, Kalthum, Kulsoum, or Koulsoum).   Translation of this cover anyone?