Muggsy Spanier

Muggsy Spanier
Nick's (Tavern), New York, c. June 1946
Background information
Birth name	Francis Joseph Julian Spanier
Also known as	Joseph Spanier
Born	November 9, 1906
Origin	Chicago, Illinois
Died	February 12, 1967
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Trumpeter/Cornettist
Instruments	Trumpet, Cornet

Francis Joseph Julian "Muggsy" Spanier (November 9, 1906 – February 12, 1967) was a prominent cornet player based in Chicago. He was renowned as the best trumpet/cornet in Chicago until Bix Beiderbecke entered the scene.

Muggsy led several traditional/"hot" jazz bands, most notably Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band (which did not, in fact, play ragtime but, rather, "hot jazz" that would now be called Dixieland). This band set the style for all later attempts to play traditional jazz with a swing rhythm section. Its key members, apart from Muggsy, were: George Brunies - later Brunis - (trombone and vocals), Rodney Cless (clarinet), George Zack or Joe Bushkin (piano), Ray McKinstry, Nick Ciazza or Bernie Billings (tenor sax), and Bob Casey (bass). A number of competent but unmemorable drummers worked in the band.

The Ragtime Band's theme tune was "Relaxin' at the Touro", named for Touro Infirmary, the New Orleans hospital where Muggsy had been treated for a perforated ulcer early in 1938. He had been at the point of death when he was saved by one Dr. Alton Ochsner who drained the fluid and eased Muggsy's weakened breathing.

"Relaxin' At The Touro" is a fairly straightforward 12-bar blues, with a neat piano introduction and coda by Joe Bushkin. The pianist recalled, many years later: "When I finally joined Muggsy in Chicago (having left Bunny Berigan's failing big band) we met to talk it over at the Three Deuces, where Art Tatum was appearing. Muggsy was now playing opposite Fats Waller at the Sherman hotel and we worked out a kind of stage show for the two bands. Muggsy was a man of great integrity. We played a blues in C and I made up a little intro. After that I was listed as the co-composer of "Relaxin' at the Touro" (quoted by Richard B. Hadlock in the notes to the Bluebird CD 'Muggsy Spanier 1939 - The "Ragtime Band" Sessions', 07863 66550).

In his time, Muggsy made numerous Dixieland recordings that still serve as favorites today. Apart from the famous Ragtime Band, his other most important venture was the traditional band he co-led with pianist Earl Hines at the Club Hangover in San Francisco in the 1950s.

Although Muggsy's real name was Francis Joseph Julian Spanier, he acquired the nickname "Muggsy" either because of his youthful enthusiasm for a baseball hero ("Muggsy" McGraw), or because of his obsession with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. He was known to have shadowed and "mugged" both of them, copying their styles and incorporating them into his own music. He was allowed, on at least one occasion, to sit in with King Oliver's band (with Louis Armstrong on second cornet) at the Lincoln Gardens, Chicago, in the early 1920s.

He ended his days in the 1960s, leading a traditional jazz band that included old friends like Joe Sullivan (piano), Pops Foster (bass) and Darnell Howard (clarinet). He was not a great technician or virtuoso, but he could lead a traditional ensemble with fire and guts. The (then) young pianist Joe Bushkin was in the Ragtime Band in 1939 and later said of Muggsy: "When he nailed something right, he stayed with it; he wouldn't fix it if it wasn't broke".

Sources

• IMDb

Persondata
Name	Spanier, Muggsy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 9, 1906
Place of birth
Date of death	February 12, 1967
Place of death