BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Francis Joseph Julian Spanier
NickName: Muggsy
Description: Cornetist, USA
Known For: Member of the Ted Lewis Band and Ben Polack’s band.
Instruments: Cornet
Music Styles: Jazz
Location: United States of America
Date Born: 9th November 1906
Location Born: Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Date Died: 12th February 1967
Location Died: San Francisco, California, United States of America
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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Muggsy Spanier
An American Cornet player, turned professional in 1921.
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).
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 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).