Abraham Holzmann was born in New York City in 1874 to Hungarian immigrant (interchangeable with German as many sources cite) Jacob Holzmann and his Louisiana born wife Isabella Finkel. According to the 1880 census the family was living in New York with Jacob working in wholesale tobacco, and Abraham's sister Charlotte "Lottie" had been added to the family (1/31/1877), later followed by sister Ester "Estelle" (7/8/1881). Jacob soon became a cigar maufacturer himself. The family is next seen in official records taking a trip to Hamburg, and possibly on to Hungary, in August of 1889. What happened to the family in the 1890s is unclear. However, Abe's father Jacob, 20 or more years older than his bride, passed away while on business in Chicago, Illinois, on October 20, 1891. His mother soon remarried to Aschel Worms, who was of German descent. This added 2 stepsisters and 3 stepbrothers into Abe's extended family, and an additional brother was born to the couple. Two other children born to Isabella had died before 1900. During the mid-part of the 1890s, Abe received a fine music education, learning skills in notation, music theory and harmony, and piano performance. Some of this was evidently learned in Germany, but much of his education was received at the New York Conservatory of Music. And where did all this training lead him? Into the emerging genre of American popular music.

In 1898, Abe got a job as a pianist, and perhaps composer, with the fledging firm of Feist and Frankenthaler, started by Leo Feist and Joe Frankenthaler. The combination would make at least Feist and Holzmann famous for some time. With the popularity of cakewalks on the rise, Abe was allegedly asked by Leo (perhaps it was more like a mutual conversation) to compose one of them. According to an account by Feist that was published in 1920 in the Brooklyn Standard Union:

Feist and Frankenthaler released Smoky Mokes, and then Bunch O' Blackberries, into the wild. The covers, most likely chosen by Feist or his staff, showed different groups of little black boys, thus serving as visual puns for both of the titles but not necessarily intended as stereotyping. Smoky Mokes was dedicated to composer and journalist Monroe H. Rosenfeld, who may have helped Abe with connections in New York. Both pieces did well and were soon picked up by John Philip Sousa for his band thanks to some heavy promotion by Feist. Reports suggest that Sousa himself rarely conducted the rags or cakewalks his band performed, usually delegating that responsibility to his assistant Arthur Pryor. Reception was evidently mixed at first, but the pieces ended up selling quite well during the Cakewalk craze of 1900-1904, and were often recorded as well. The following is an excerpt from the New York Herald of Sunday, January 13th, 1901, which was reprinted on the back of another Feist publication in promoting Hunky Dory, a 1900 entry by Holzmann that featured the same style cover as the previous cakewalks. It is a colorful combination of fact and hyperbole. Corrections or comments are [in brackets].

As for the "classical music" that Holzmann was a "celebrated writer" of, searches through a number of fairly substantial databases have turned up nothing of note before his initial 1899 entries, which were popular. As with the mistaken identity of German origin, perhaps he was simply known for playing or arranging classical music, for if he was composing such works then it appears they were not being published, even if performed. Following his initial successes, which were considerable, Holzmann worked as an arranger and staff for Feist, and did come out with a few intermezzos and waltzes that were fairly well crafted in late 19th century style. But his major output followed popular trends, including more cakewalks, marches, songs, and even some American Indian lore music, prescient in the latter half of the 1901-1910 decade. The 1900 enumeration showed Abe living in Manhattan with his parets, step-siblings, and sisters. He was listed as a music composer and Lottie as a piano teacher.

In 1901 one of Abe's best loved marches emerged. Title Blaze Away, it appears to be a tribute to Rough Rider turned President Theodore Roosevelt, who may be the figure depicted on the cover. As with many of Holzmann's other works, this was picked up by Sousa's band, and became popular with circus bands as well. It turned out to be his last substantial hit on piano rolls and early band records as well. Uncle Sammy, a 1904 patriotic march, also proved to be somewhat popular for more than a decade. Displaying a softer side, Abe composed Loveland Waltzes in 1905, which saw a number of piano roll and phonograph renditions for many years. He contributed to the growing cache of Native-American themed pieces with Flying Arrow in 1906. One curious entry in 1907 was his Cowperthwait Centennial March, celebrating the 100th anniversary of a Manhattan carpet and furniture department store, Cowperthwait & Sons. This one was distributed by the store, rather than by publisher Feist.

In 1908 Abe came out with three fine pieces, including one campaign song for William Howard Taft's Presidential run, The Whip which was essentially a train wreck march based on a popular melodrama, and Old Faithful, which was aimed at dog lovers and their trusted pets. Early that year Holzmann made a ten week promotional trip for Feist to most of the larger cities in the United States where they did direct business. As he told The Music Trade Review just prior to his mid-January departure, "My trip has no actual business significance, inasmuch as my intention is to visit the trade socially, if only to express Mr. Feist's appreciation for their untiring efforts in pushing his publications... Another reason for my tour is that my new march 'Old Faithful' has already shown signs of popular approval, and of course I will endeavor to interest the retailer in this number, which I think is going to be an enormous seller." Abe married Isabelle "Belle" Fishblatt on April 26, 1906. Their daughter Natalie Holzmann was born on June 2, 1909.

In the 1910 census the Holzmanns are shown as living with her parents, and he is the manager of a music publisher, which was Leo Feist. However, in February 1912 Abe left Feist, and by March he had gone to work for the dominant New York and Detroit house of Jerome Remick & Company. He was hired by Remick to manage the Band and Orchestra department. They were responsible for creating and distributing complete orchestrations of current Remick tunes for orchestras and bands to perform. Around the same time he was appointed the bandmaster of the Mecca Shrine Band in New York. Holzmann's output had been consistently light, if significant, but was trimmed to only one piece annually from 1909 to 1916, albeit each piece saw a measure of success to go with its accompanying hype. In 1915 Feist capitalized on a resurgence of the cakewalk with a reissue of Smoky Mokes, bringing renewed exposure to Holzmann and fellow cakewalk composer Kerry Mills whose At a Georgia Campmeeting was also enjoying fresh sales 16 years after it release. One late march was the winner of a 1916 contest for the composition of a piece to open the new Rialto Theater in Manhattan. Holzmann's The Rialto won out over fifty other entries, and quickly found its way to a popular piano roll as well.

In 1916 Abe finally retired from composition in order to manage affairs on a larger scale at Remick. He made his mark on some retail and distribution practices within the company, and was featured in a Music Trade Review article of June 16, 1917 on this very topic, part of which is quoted here:

As the war effort increased in Europe in 1916 and 1917, many of Holzmann's earlier marches, such as Uncle Sammy and The Winning Fight found new popularity on roll and record. On his 1918 draft record he and Isabelle are shown as living across the Hudson in East Orange, New Jersey, near Thomas Edison's haunt of West Orange. He also appears as a Remick manager in 1920 in the census. In 1923 Holzmann finally joined ASCAP nearly a decade after it was formed.

Being a civic minded individual and somewhat of a community leader as well as one in publishing, Holzmann was active in a number of groups, including the Masonic Lodge, Elks Club, and the Knights of Pythias. It appears he continued in his capacity as a manager at Remick until around 1924 when he went to work as the band and orchestra department leader at rival Shapiro, Bernstein & Company. In the firms announcement of his acquisition, they noted that: "He has traveled at one time or another in practically every State in the Union and his first-hand knowledge of orchestra requirements in every part of the country stands him in good stead."

In the 1930 census Abe still lists himself as a publisher of music, although the firm name is not shown. His daughter Natalie, now 20, was also contributing to the household, working as a secretary in a local brokerage. The following year, lyricist Jimmy Kennedy, who had made a hit out of John W. Bratton's Teddy Bear's Picnic by adding lyrics to it, did the same for Blaze Away. While not as popular as the Bratton piece, it did see renewed interest for a short time. The timing, however, coming out during the depths of the Great Depression, did not favor great success. Holzmann left music publishing in late 1933, and spent the remainder of his life working as the advertising manager for The International Musician, the paper for the International Federation of Musicians, based in Newark, New Jersey. He died in East Orange in January 1939 at age 64, just as prosperity was coming around the corner. Holzmann lives on, however, in the traditional jazz groups and ragtime bands that continue to perform his most popular pieces in their concerts.