Muggsy Spanier
Don Mopsick
bandleader Muggsy Spanier. You may have only heard the name or read it in a
jazz history book, so now's your chance to learn who he was.
go to http://www.riverwalk.org/proglist/showpromo/muggsy.htm
Francis Joseph Julian Spanier was born in 1901 in Chicago. Like most
youngsters, he was a baseball enthusiast and remained so all his life. He
gained the nickname Muggsy because of his admiration for the skills of the
New York Giants team manager, John "Muggsy" McGraw." Muggsy said, "McGraw
knew what he wanted, he'd run right after it without considering the
consequences.That's the way I played, on impulse, without figuring out the
'why' or 'what'.and I didn't do so badly."
His mother Kate insisted that he become a musician, and she paid for his
music lessons. What really turned Muggsy Spanier onto jazz was hearing Joe
"King" Oliver at the Royal Gardens Cafe while he was still in grammar
school. He never took lessons with Oliver, he said, just listened to his
playing. He liked the way Oliver stuck close to the melody of a tune; he
played few notes, mostly in the middle register, with good rhythm. He was a
"feeder," helping the others in the band.
Alma Hubner wrote, ".Muggsy plays a truer, more negroid, more authentic jazz
style than any other contemporary white jazz cornetist. He's based his style
closely upon the pattern of Oliver's, at the same time taking a lot from
[Louis] Armstrong but never falling under the influence of [Bix]
Beiderbecke."
Muggsy said, "I got to know Oliver quite well, both he and Louis [Armstrong]
encouraged me in my playing a lot. Joe sometimes would teach me some of his
tricks with the mutes; I learned a lot from him. After a little practice, I
was invited to sit in with the band, I was the first one to do so.it must
have seemed strange, a little kid blowing cornet with those two Titans! That
's one thrill I'll never forget: having played with the two greatest
cornetists in jazz!"
The other great influence on Spanier was the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, which
he first heard in 1920 with New Orleanian George Brunies on trombone. Muggsy
and Brunies became friends and associates for life.
Bandleader Sig Meyer (for whom Muggsy worked early on) said, "Muggsy was
fired with enthusiasm, a love of playing, and had that tremendous drive that
gave the band he worked with an unbelievable lift."
Muggsy made his first record on February 25th, 1924 in Richmond, IN, for the
Gennett label. By 1928, Muggsy Spanier was well-established in Chicago as a
jazz player, both in person and on records. The next year, Muggsy got his
big break when Ted Lewis asked him to join his nationally popular orchestra.
In 1935, the Ted Lewis band made the MGM film Here Comes the Band, in which
Muggsy appears on-screen.
Late in 1938 Spanier left Lewis and joined the Ben Pollack orchestra,
replacing Harry James who was leaving to join Benny Goodman. During a tour
of New Orleans, he developed a perforated duodenal ulcer, a very serious
condition, and was hospitalized at the Touro Infirmary there. Muggsy made a
slow and gradual recovery, and after a year returned to Chicago and his
music career.
In 1939, Muggsy said: "I'm trying to play the kind of music I used to play
with Tesch [Frank Teschmacher] and the old Chicago gang. All the same, I
wanted to be up-to-date too. I want to have the old Chicago in New Orleans
tradition and yet be something contemporary and distinctive."
The result was the formation of Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band. The Band
opened at the Sherman House Hotel in Chicago on April 28, 1939. Muggsy said,
"We've only been together three weeks as my first job in 15 months. Doctors
gave me up for lost after all those operations and I still can't understand
how I survived. I could've gone back with Ted Lewis, only people were
telling him I couldn't play anymore. That's why I got this little gang
together just to show them I'm still around!"
The Ragtime Band was a big hit. Alma Hubner wrote: "Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime
Band invaded the Sherman and established a new record by remaining there for
five and a half months. The band had coast-to-coast radio hookups and the
crowds at the Sherman Hotel went for it in a big way. It played good jazz,
which was good listening or dancing, whichever way you were inclined. Bands
like.Bunny Berrigan's and Gene Krupa's played opposite them, yet Muggsy's
boys always managed to steal the show. It wasn't only Muggsy's driving,
inspired cornet that proved sensational to the general public opinion, it
was the band as a whole as well. George Brunis and his tail-gate trombone
plus his irrepressible flair for comedy gave the Ragtimers a solid basis for
good showmanship. Rod Cless' clarinet was inspired and inspiring. Then too,
men like Pat Pattison, Bob Casey, George Zack, Joe Bushkin, Ray McKinstry,
Nick Ciazza, Marty Greenberg, Don Carter, and George Wettling added to the
atmosphere of perfection."
In October of that year, Muggsy and the Ragtime Band journeyed to New York
to play at Nick's in Greenwich Village. But the engagement only lasted until
December 10th. Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band lasted a mere seven months.
Before the band broke up, they made 16 exceptional hot jazz records, 4 in
Chicago and 12 in New York, for the RCA Victor Bluebird label. When the
first long-play collection of all the sessions was issued, it was entitled
"The Great 16" and this immediately became the generic name by which they
are recognizable to all jazz buffs.
Spanier wrote, "People want to know why Victor didn't get me to record more
of those Ragtime sides, for they were one of the biggest sellers. But they
were not commercial stuff....So I imagine this answers the question."
After the breakup, Muggsy recorded for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records and
then joined the Bob Crosby orchestra in 1940. "One of my greatest thrills
was playing with the Crosby band," Spanier told Alma Hubner. "I enjoyed
myself immensely. Those boys had the right spirit - Jess [Stacey], Eddie
Miller, Bobby Haggart, Nappy Lamare and Ray Bauduc certainly made something
out of that band." During his time with the Crosby band, Spanier appeared in
two more films, Let's Make Music and Sis Hopkins.
Jim Cullum says, "During his touring days with the Bob Cats, whenever the
band would find itself in a bar with a juke box, Muggsy would always play
the Great 16 records."
Beginning in 1941, Muggsy formed his own big band. That year, the band began
a long engagement at the Arcadia ballroom in New York. The great New Orleans
clarinet player, Irving Fazola, was one of the sidemen for a time. The band
gained the No. 1 spot in the Melody Maker annual poll in Great Britain. The
big band ceased to exist by September 1943. Exhausted, Muggsy returned to
Chicago and then New York. By 1944, Muggsy was working with Eddie Condon and
did more recording for Commodore.
In 1945, Muggsy placed seventh in the Down Beat yearly readers poll, one
place ahead of Dizzy Gillespie.
The post-war period found Muggsy constantly touring the US with small
groups. He was frequently featured at Nick's in Greenwich Village. Some of
his sidemen were George Brunies, Darnell Howard, Truck Parham, Floyd Bean,
Ralph Hutchinson, Barrett Deems, and Riverwalk guests Bobby Gordon and Jack
Maheu.
An offer to appear with Earl Hines at the Club Hangover in San Francisco
prompted Muggsy to move there in 1957. He continued to lead and tour
nationally until 1964, when he was featured at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Muggsy died in 1967.
For info on how to hear the Riverwalk broadcast, go to www.riverwalk.org and
click on Station List, or Listen on the Web.
mop
Mark Bradley
recommend (with some reservations) his biography and discography by
Bery Whyatt on Jazzology Press, 1995 called "Muggsy Spanier: The
Lonesome Road." It comes with a CD. As far as the book itself, the
reason I have some reservations in recommending it is because it is
really for the rather diehard fan of Muggsy and not the casual jazz
fan. The book goes into great detail of where he played and when, and
with who-- all that is quite dry and the book barely scratches the
surface when it comes to delving into what he was like as a human
being-- one finishes the book with a lot of technical knowledge of his
work but no grasp of "the man." It is supposed to be a biography,
after all. This is a shame because apparently he was a real
character-- drank and partied to excess like most other jazz musicians
of the time. I think the lack of "personal" info is due in large part
bacause the book is done under the direct supervision of a surviving
family member. She apparently didn't want all that stuff out of the
bag. It's the reader's loss, and means the definitive bio of Muggsy
is still waiting to be written.
The CD that comes with the book is definitely worth having. I'm a big
Muggsy fan for the following reasons: 1) great name-- how can you not
like a guy named "Muggsy?", 2) played the cornet (an instrument close
to my heart in a world of loud trumpet players), 3) he drank a lot 4)
bragged that he couldn't hit a high C (this endears him to me even
more) 5) he was perhaps the greatest user of the plunger (check him
out the "Trumpet Legends" series hosted by Wynton), and last but not
least, 6) he made very joyous music.
One thing... I've always wondered how you pronounce his last name. Is
it Span-ee-A, Span-year? Spun-ear? (the book doesn't say)
Jack Woker
> One thing... I've always wondered how you pronounce his last name.
I've always heard it pronounced SPAN-yer.
jack
Hal Vickery
<ste...@mediaone.net> wrote:
Ditto.
nsmf
Steve Bosarge
we all know how drummers don't always get things right!) :-)
Steve Bosarge
"Mark Bradley" <jazz...@netzero.net> wrote in message
news:b2ca706d.01102...@posting.google.com...
Tom Walls
hvic...@svs.com says...
Agreed. My wife appears to be a distant relation of Muggsy's. SPAN-yer
is the family pronunciation.
--
Tom Walls
the guy at the Temple of Zeus
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/zeus/
Paul Penna
Hal Vickery <hvic...@svs.com> wrote:
I'm sure this will be the most authoritative citation: Spanier is
caricatured in a Warner Bros, cartoon (whose title I cannot, of course,
recall at the moment) as a canine named "Mugsy Spaniel."
--
Paul Penna