Biography
Perhaps the family name "Bland" hardly seems ideal for someone whose career would invite scrutiny from music writers, yet it landed fittingly on a banjoist and guitarist active in the jazz scene of the 1920s, much as it might have suited an AOR radio host of the same surname. Jack Bland earned his greatest recognition playing banjo in the Mound City Blue Blowers, the ensemble he started alongside Red McKenzie during the first years of that decade after both men had left St. Louis. In that period, even a neutral observer could sense that rhythm sections were gradually assigning string instruments fewer responsibilities while pianists claimed an expanding share of the timekeeping duties. The banjo endured largely on account of its volume; the loose New Orleans-style groups valued an instrument capable of striking chords loudly enough to cut through the surrounding texture. That approach to performance could fairly be called unremarkable, producing a generation of capable yet largely anonymous musicians in a field otherwise celebrated for personal expression. Bland nevertheless achieved commercial success with the Mound City Blue Blowers in 1924 when the unit scored a regional hit around Chicago with "Arkansas Blues," the performance perhaps directed toward the western bank of the Mississippi. Later the same year guitarist Eddie Lang entered the lineup, enabling the group to undertake a landmark visit to England. Bland himself may have grown weary of the banjo’s limitations in this setting, for he soon experimented with cello and the four-string tenor guitar. By 1929 Lang had departed, prompting the ensemble to bill itself as Red McKenzie’s Mound City Blue Blowers and to pursue a more conventional hot-jazz style, an evolution underscored by the arrival of drummer Gene Krupa. The revised roster functioned as an informal all-star unit that also featured Muggsy Spanier on cornet, Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone, and Eddie Condon, who had already exchanged banjo for guitar. The shift reflected a broader trend in which banjoists were effectively being urged to adopt different instruments. The band’s earlier identity had centered on such rudimentary devices as the comb-and-tissue-paper setup that McKenzie employed in a kazoo-like manner, an actual kazoo, and a comparatively forward banjo part. Visual evidence survives in the 1929 short subject The Opry House. Throughout the 1930s Bland worked as a New York freelancer and participated in sessions with the Billy Banks Orchestra that included clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, and drummer Zutty Singleton. He next joined the Rhythmmakers, a series of all-star recording dates issued under shifting leader names. Some pressings credited Jack Bland & the Rhythmmakers, others Eddie Condon & the Rhythmmakers, still others Billy Banks, while a few appeared simply as the Rhythmakers. The strongest edition was cut in 1938 under Pee Wee Russell’s leadership, with bassist Pops Foster and pianist Fats Waller among the participants. Bland himself directed a 1932 date that enlisted trombonist Tommy Dorsey and placed Condon back on banjo. In the 1940s he became a regular at the informal jam sessions held at Jimmy Ryan’s Club on 52nd Street, an environment never characterized as uneventful. He recorded under producer Milt Gabler for the Commodore label in the company of Allen, Singleton, clarinetist Edmond Hall, trumpeter Hot Lips Page, tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec, trombonist Vic Dickenson, and additional first-rank players. In 1940 Bland made sides with drummer George Wettling and later that year organized his own ensemble, concentrating primarily on guitar. Returning to freelance work in 1942, he collaborated with pianist Art Hodes through 1944 and with Spanier in Chicago during the same span. From 1944 onward Bland again led his own group until the close of the decade. During the 1950s he relocated to Los Angeles, withdrew from active performance, and took employment as a taxi driver, thereby encountering musicians more frequently though only in passing. He died in Los Angeles in the late 1960s.