Back in my salad days when I first was becoming interested in jazz, I ran across the wonderful name “Muggsy Spanier.” For some reason, that nickname made me think of him as a boxer, and when I first saw a picture of him shortly thereafter, I thought he looked as if he had gone quite a few rounds. (As I later found out, Spanier, a great baseball fan, took the sobriquet from John “Muggsy” McGraw, manager of the New York Giants baseball team and bestowed it upon himself.)
When I listened to this CD, I was reminded of that early image I had had, and his playing seems to complement it. So often he issues flurries of notes that come flying like jabs, left and right, in rapid succession as he moves deftly and quickly around the tune, having kicked it off at a tempo that is, at the least, challenging.
