Beschrijving

Abraham (Abe) Holzmann was born in New York in 1874. He began his career as an elevator boy, followed by a job as dry goods store office clerk. He then became a highly successful composer, a department head and an advertising manager for music publishing firms. He was musically educated at the New York Conservatory of music, and went to work as an office boy parallel to his studying. By the age of twenty he was leading a dance orchestra which played at Harlem’s most fashionable night clubs. After graduation he joined the newly formed publishing firm Feist and Frankenthaler as a nine-dollar-a-week pianist, and soon began to write popular dances and marches. His first cake-walk, “Smokey Mokes”, e.g. sold 2,500,000 copies. At the same time he organized the firm’s orchestra and band department and later found similar employments with other publishers in the New York area. His last position was that of an advertising manager for the journal of the American Federation of Musicians, the “International Musician”. Holzmann died in East Orange in 1939. The inspiration for this march came from a well-publicized incident during the Spanish-American War. During a naval encounter in Manila Bay in 1898, Admiral George Dewey was standing on the bridge of the flagship “Olympia” with Captain Charles Gridley, who was awaiting firing orders from his superior officer. When Dewey gave the command, “You may fire when you are ready,” Gridley passed the order to his crew with, “Well, boys, let’s blaze away!” Holzmann’s “Blaze Away!” is one of the best-known and popular American marches also outside the United States. It should perhaps be added that the soldiers’ humor prevalent in various countries added lyrics to the beautiful trio which are not apt for publication…