Abe Schwartz (Yiddish: אבּ שװארץ or אייב שווארץ) (1881 near Bucharest, Romania – 1963 in Bronx, New York City) was a well-known klezmer violinist, composer, Yiddish theater and ethnic recordings bandleader from the 1910s to the 1940s. In his various orchestras, he recorded many of the leading klezmer musicians of the early twentieth century, including Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Biography Schwartz was born outside of Bucharest, Romania on April 15, 1881. In immigration documents he gave his birthplace as "Mihaleni" (Mihăileni). It is unclear what musical education he received there, but according to klezmer researcher Henry Sapoznik, his father was a tinsmith who tried to discourage Abe from becoming a musician. Schwartz emigrated to the United States with his parents sometime between 1900 and 1902. In the US he eventually married his wife Rose and had a son Louis, as well as four daughters: Mary, Ida, Bebe, and Sylvia, who recorded a few times accompanying her father on the piano. In the 1900s and 1910s he worked as a dance band leader in the New York City area. He was among a cohort of Romanian-born klezmer bandleaders that included Max Leibowitz, Abe Katzman, and Milu Lemisch. During the First World War he gave his place of employment as musician at the Little Bessarabia Restaurant on East Houston Street. At some point he met David Nodiff, Artists and repertoire (A&R) man for Columbia Records. In 1917 Nodiff hired Schwartz to organize instrumental performances of ethnic music for the label as well as to seek out new Jewish talent for future recordings. Among these discoveries were Naftule Brandwein, the "king of klezmer clarinet", who could be heard playing clarinet on some of Schwartz's recordings around 1920, before he formed his own orchestra at the competing Victor Records. As Jeffrey Wollock put it, "an independent contractor for Columbia's East European (and possibly other ethnic) records, [...] it was Schwartz's job to put bands together." Wollock continues: "Schwartz was a "house conductor" in the foreign department, and his bands consisted of whomever he hired for the session. Since he often did without written arrangements, relying on his players to "know what to do," the playing on most of his band recordings is vernacular, spontaneous, and somewhat ramshackle." By 1919 Schwartz published his first song "Dos Zekele mit Koilen" and recorded it with Yiddish language singer Abraham Moskowitz, marking Schwartz's entry into the world