Muggsy Spanier approached the cornet with steady predictability and forceful tone, seldom venturing beyond the melody itself. Equally at ease inside Dixieland groups, he delivered emotionally charged solos shaped by the styles of both King Oliver and Louis Armstrong while mastering the plunger mute. He took up the instrument at thirteen, appeared with Elmer Schoebel’s band in 1921, and made his first recordings in 1924. Throughout the 1920s he remained a steady presence on the Chicago scene, contributing to several landmark early sessions before signing on with Ted Lewis in 1929. Although Lewis functioned mainly as a flamboyant entertainer, Spanier’s featured work supplied the ensemble with genuine musical substance for the following seven years. After leaving Lewis he spent 1936–1938 in Ben Pollack’s orchestra, then suffered a severe illness that confined him to a hospital for three months. Once recovered, he assembled his celebrated eight-piece Ragtime Band and cut sixteen Dixieland titles for Bluebird—later collected as The Great Sixteen—that effectively set the template for the revival movement. Because the band had arrived a few years ahead of that revival, steady employment proved elusive and the group disbanded. Spanier spent a period with Bob Crosby, led a short-lived big band of his own, worked as a freelance sideman with various New York Dixieland units, and after 1950 slowly shifted his base to the West Coast. Between 1957 and 1959 he played in Earl Hines’ orchestra, continued performing until his retirement in 1964, and visited Europe in 1960 while remaining a favorite among Dixieland audiences throughout his later career.
