Ajdin Asllan

Albanian-American multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, oud, llaute/lauto) and independent label owner (born March 12, 1895 in Leskovik, Albania - died October 1976 in New York, NY) Asllan emigrated to the United States in September 1926. He briefly lived in Detroit, Michigan, but then settled in New York City where he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1934. Asllan made his living as a musician in the Turkish, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian nightclub scene on 8th Avenue in New York City. Around 1937, he released his first recordings on the short-lived Mi-Re Rekord label, which released four or five records with Albanian music. Around 1942, Asllan opened the Balkan Phonograph Record Store at 42 Rivington Street in the Lower East Side in New York; the store later moved to 27th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. In the 1940s, he also founded a number of labels that released Albanian, Greek, Turkish, and Sephardic music, most notably Balkan Phonograph Records and its successor Balkan, Kaliphon Phonograph Records and Kaliphone Phonograph Records, Me Re Record Co. and its successor Metropolitan Phonograph Record Co..