Jack Bland

Perhaps the surname "Bland" is not the best one to have if one's life is going to be picked at by music critics. Nonetheless, there is a sense of justice in that name being given to a banjoist and guitarist from the '20s jazz era, just as there would be to find an AOR disc jockey named Bland. Jack Bland is best-known as the banjoist for the Mound City Blue Blowers, a group he co-founded with Red McKenzie in the early '20s out of St. Louis. In this era of jazz, the unbiased listener might surmise that there was a plot afoot to give string players less and less to do, while pian...