I've got individual CDs from both Jimmy Ponder and Gene Ludwig, fine Pittsburgh-based guitarist and B-3 organist respectively, so I was happy to get "What's New" from my friend Carl Abernathy the other day, a High Note disk that puts the duo in a trio with Cecil Brooks III, a drummer I admire and one of a few producers whose name I consider when deciding whether to buy a CD.
An up-tempo rendering of "God Bless the Child" is an unusual, and almost unrecognizable, version of the standard, and not in a bad way. I dig their blues-drenched rendition of "Please Give Me Someone to Love," in which Ludwig comps behind Ponder's guitar to near perfection. The sweet ballad rendering of "That's All" to close pretty much proves these guys can play any style. You can't go wrong buying this.
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