Spiegle Willcox

Who was Spiegle Willcox?

Newell "Spiegle" Willcox was a jazz trombonist. He was born Newell Lynn Willcox in upstate New York, and learned valve trombone as a youngster under the tuition of his father, Lynn Willcox, an amateur musician and bandleader. He acquired the familiar nickname Spiegle as a student at the Manlius Military Academy, where he played in the school brass band.

He switched to the more familiar slide trombone in his late teens, and joined a group called The Big Four in nearby Syracuse, New York. The band came to the notice of an aspiring young bandleader named Paul Whiteman, who first joined the group, then took over its leadership as the Paul Whiteman Collegians, and brought them to the bigger stage of New York City itself in 1923.

Willcox made his first recordings with the Collegians, and remained with Whiteman for three years, building a reputation as a good reader with a full, richly burnished tone which sat well with the leader's preference for a sweet, sophisticated ensemble sound, rather than the more earthy approach of the hot bands. Willcox regarded himself as predominantly a melody player rather than an improvising jazz soloist.