Abe Small–Brooklyn Cornetist (Gennett, Strong, and Federal Recordings: 1922-1923)

Carolina Cotton Pickers
1. Georgia Cabin Door–Gennett (1 Dec. 1922) [0:00]
2. Dumbell–Gennett (1 Dec. 1922) [3:09]

Abe Small and His Orchestra
3. Aunt Hagar’s Blues–Strong (ca. Jan 1923) [5:52]
4. Sister Kate–Strong (ca. Jan 1923) [9:06]
5. Georgia Cabin Door–Strong (ca. Jan 1923) [12:26]
6. Love’s Lament–Strong (ca. Jan 1923) [15:37]

Abe Small’s Rosemont Melody Boys
7. Georgia Cabin Door–Federal (ca. Mar. 1923) [18:23]
8. Aggravatin’ Papa–Federal (ca. Mar. 1923) [21:31]

Abe Small and His Melody Boys
9. Wabash Blues–Federal (ca. Apr. 1923) [24:33]
10. Virginia Blues–Federal (ca. Apr. 1923) [27:28]

Transferred with 3.0ML lateral VM670SP and 3.0ML lateral VM95SP Audiotechnica cartridges via an Audiotechnica AT-LP120 Turntable. Discs from Colin Hancock Collection. Discographical Information from Rust’s American Dance Bands. Biographical information from Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com, FindAGrave.com, and Jacqui Stevens, “A Family Tapestry” (7 Dec. 2023). Special thanks to Tom Roberts for gifting his copy of Strong 10002 to this collection.

One interesting part of early New York City jazz was the large group of European-born Jewish musicians who were involved in the dance band scene and recording groups. Names like Joseph Samuels, Harry Raderman, and Nathan Glantz are well known among collectors of 78s and even many jazz fans too, but one lesser known name is that of cornetist Abe Small, based in Brooklyn.

Abraham Michael Schmuelwitz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania on January 5, 1889, into a large urban Jewish neighborhood. His father, Solomon Schmuelwitz, was a Belarus-born playwright, composer, vocalist, and badchen (an Ashkenazi wedding entertainer) who moved the family to Brooklyn, New York in 1894 and subsequently got a strong foothold in the music publish business with Hebrew Music Publishers, based on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Solomon eventually published such memorable titles as “The Titanic Disaster” and “Long Live the Land of the Free,” both printed in both Yiddish and English. He was also recording as early as 1904 for Victor and Zonophone under the name Solomon “Small” (a multigenerational Americanization of Schmuelwitz). Abraham also took to music, chosing the cornet as his main instrument and doubling on an array of others. In the 1910s, he studied at Frank Damrosch’s Conservatory the New York Institute of Musical Art (which eventually became Juilliard). After his education, he enlisted in the Army in 1915, becoming Assistant Band Leader while stationed at Fort Sloucum, NY in 1916.

After WWI he began playing professionally as “Abe Small” in New York. His first appearances on record are in March of 1921 for Okeh, soloing with the Rega Dance Orchestra. In 1922, Small was hired to front a band at I. Jay Fagan’s recently opened Rosemont Dancing Palace (aka the Rosemont Ballroom), located at the corner of Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue in the heart of downtown Brooklyn. A sister to the Roseland in Manhattan, the Rosemont was the top ballroom in Brooklyn, and the gig was a major development in Small’s career. His band alternated with Joe Lanin’s Orchestra and was loved by dancers enough to remain there throughout the 1922 season. In December, the band was asked by Gennett Records to cut their first sides, under the name the Carolina Cotton Pickers. Soon after, they were signed up again by the short-lived Strong Recording Corp. and Federal Records to cut several more great sides, all showcasing Small’s wonderful “full-toned” silvery cornet style. Small enjoyed bluesy numbers, as he recorded several of the day’s blues fox-trot hits. The band also played pop tunes, novelty numbers, and beautiful waltzes (“Love’s Lament” features cello and strings, the real package for a budget label jazz record from 1923!). 10 of their sides are featured here.

After his band’s run at the Rosemont came to close, he continued performing there with Joe Lanin’s band and remained active throughout the 1920s and 30s as a musician in the New York scene. He is known to have played with orchestra leader Richard Kraetke aboard the S. S. Leviathan for passengers on transatlantic voyages, and claimed to have performed with Paul Whiteman at some point during this era. At the outbreak of WWII, he enlisted again assuming the rank of Major Sergeant in the 378th Army Service Forces, and again leading the band at Fort Sloucum. Small passed away five years after the war ended in 1950, at the age of 61.

Small is overlooked partially because his activities were largely separate from the regular “clique” of Jewish New York studio musicians. It was also because he focused most of his activities in Brooklyn rather than Manhattan, and opted to remain involved with the armed forces even after the close of the First World War. Small’s legacy lives on in the form of the wonderfully strange recorded output he left us.

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