Ted Ludwig - Essential Jazz Guitar
(Burton Avenue Music, 2025)
Ted Ludwig is an acclaimed seven-string jazz guitarist and educator originally from New Orleans, known for a style that blends soulful melody with technical precision. Since beginning his professional career in 1997, he has become a fixture in the New Orleans jazz scene and a prominent instructor.
The diverse jazz scene of his hometown and formal study heavily influenced Ludwig’s musical development under several jazz legends: Hank Mackie, a local New Orleans legend and Ludwig’s first jazz guitar teacher, whom he credits as a “guiding light” for his early development; Steve Masakowski, an influential teacher and mentor during Ludwig’s time at the University of New Orleans. Ludwig often attended Masakowski’s gigs with the group Astral Project to learn from his modern jazz approach; Ellis Marsalis Jr., under the direction of the legendary pianist, Ludwig earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Program. Ludwig’s influences include Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and Pat Martino as major inspirations whose recordings informed his sound and improvisational vocabulary.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forced Ludwig to become a refugee, so he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he enjoyed lengthy residences at The After Thought and The Capital Hotel with his long-standing trio that includes Arkansas Jazz Hall-of-Fame members, bassist Joe Vick (inducted in 2014) and drummer Bryan Brown (inducted in 2018 (The Hall inducted Ludwig in 2016). Ludwig kept an ongoing presence locally with Jazz at the Joint in the Joint Theater (301 Main Street, North Little Rock, AR). In May 2025, The Joint Theater closed, and Ludwig moved Jazz at the Joint to a new venue, Act II (315 Main Street, North Little Rock, AR).
Ludwig’s recording, Essential Jazz Guitar, was a collaborative project recorded over two to three days in Nashville, Tennessee, with the Burton Avenue Music. The recordings took place at Rudy’s Jazz Room and other performance locations in Nashville and featured Ted Ludwig: seven-string guitar; Joel Frahm: tenor saxophone; Pat Coil: piano; Jacob Jezioro: upright bass; and Danny Gottlieb: drums. They made the recordings live over the course of three days, ensuring the spontaneity of the performances.
Ludwig ensures a dual “old-new” dichotomy on the recording using traditional recording and arranging methods coupled with a throughly modern tonal and harmonic soloing approach. Highlights include the thoughtful and swinging original “The Pendulum.” Among the standards is an outstanding performance of Miles Davis’ modal classic, “Milestones,” and a beautifully crafted reading of “Everything Happens to Me,” highlighting Ludwig’s superior chording. Ludwig also includes Duke Jordan’s standard, “Jeanine,” which has been a part of his set lists for years. The guitarist shares a special empathy with tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, striking sparks on "Carla Bley’s “Syndrome” and the Ludwig original, “What It Was.”
Ted Ludwig has developed a beautiful guitar tone which he achieves and sustains on his seven-string JazzCAT guitar, custom made for him by luthier Linda Manzer. He plays Thomastik-Infeld JS113 flatwound strings through a Henriksen Little Bud amplifier, a setup that enables his unique clean and thick tone.