Abe Elenkrig

Abraham "Abe" Elenkrig (, September 15, 1878 – January 8, 1965) was a Russian-born American klezmer bandleader, Cornet player, barber and recording artist of the early twentieth century. He was among the earliest bandleaders to record klezmer music in the United States, making a series of discs for Victor Recording Company and Columbia Records from 1913 to 1915. In 2009, the Library of Congress named his 1913 recording Fon der Choope (From the Wedding) to the National Recording Registry.

Biography Early life Elenkrig was born in Zolotonosha, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire on September 15, 1878 (although some sources say 1877). His father, Joseph Elenkrieg, was the head of the family orchestra in Europe and later emigrated to the United States as well. Abe married his wife Tamara while still living in Russia; their first son Max was born there. or possibly 1906,

Career For most of his career, Elenkrig seems to have supported himself by working as a barber. Although he was a contemporary of other Ukrainian-born klezmer recording artists of the era, including Joseph Frankel, Israel J. Hochman and Joseph Cherniavsky, his recordings predates theirs by a handful of years, and are therefore the earliest large ensemble klezmer recordings made in the United States.

Klezmer researcher Hankus Netsky notes that Columbia Records had been releasing other forms of Jewish music since 1902, and in the early 1910s had invested much more heavily in "ethnic" music and foreign-made recordings, and that Jewish dance music records aimed at the large immigrant population was a logical next step. During 1913, Elenkrig recorded around ten klezmer tracks under the name Elenkrig's Orchestra, which had a brassy and recognizably American sound. Klezmer researcher Joel Rubin states that Elenkrig does not seem to have been a leading or prominent figure in the New York klezmer world, and was not remembered by people he interviewed about that time. He was buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in the section set aside by the "Zolotonosher Friends" Landsmanshaft.

Legacy Although his recording career was short, renewed attention was given to Elenkrig's output in the late 1970s during the Klezmer revival. Recordings of his made it onto a number of klezmer reissue albums, including Klezmer music (1910-1927): early Yiddish instrumental music (Folklyric, 1983), Klezmer music 1910-1942: recordings from the YIVO Archives (Global Village, 1986), Klezmer pioneers: European and American recordings, 1905-1952 (Rounder Records, 1993), Klezmer!: Jewish music from old world to our world (Yazoo, 2000), and Cantors, klezmorim, and crooners, 1905-1953 : classic Yiddish 78s from the Mayrent Collection (JSP, 2009).

To recognize his historical importance as a representative of early Jewish-American music, in 2009, the Library of Congress named his 1913 recording Fon der Choope (From the Wedding) to the National Recording Registry.