Fort Smith Jazz Festival primer: Ted Ludwig

Editor’s note: The Fort Smith Jazz Festival is being presented this year by The City Wire, Downtown Fort Smith, Arvest, Kirkham Systems, Raymond James and Associates, Dixie Digital, and Arkoma Services. The festival music begins at 1 p.m., May 22 at Pendergraft Park in downtown Fort Smith. The following is one in a series of Jazz Fest primers.

review by Peter Lewis
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Ted Ludwig still has New Orleans embedded within himself and carries that identity like a guiding torch.

Prior to Katrina, Ludwig lived in Arabi, a community within St. Bernard Parish. Arabi, and the Parish as a whole, was utterly devastated by Katrina. Like so many others, he left the Orleans area to start over, to move on with life.

Life found an unexpected home in Little Rock. While life-altering transitions are never easy, Ludwig seems happy with his new life in the Natural State.

“I didn’t realize how beautiful it was. It’s obviously much smaller and the scene is nowhere close to New Orleans, but I’ve had a lot of success here. I have a great gig playing at the Capitol Hill Hotel four nights a week and I get to play the music I love,” he explained in a recent interview.

And what is that music?

“I define it as mainstream or straight ahead jazz. It’s a mix of bebop, swing and modern jazz.”

He elaborates further, indicating that the sound is often expansive, taking a Latin feel on songs that are bossa nova or samba oriented. The main thing with jazz is to “put your own spin on it.”

That music derives inspiration from guitarists like Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and Pat Martino and found its birth in New Orleans. Around the age of 21, Ludwig approached Hank Mackie, a New Orleans jazz guitar guru, about taking lessons. It proved to be a defining moment in Ludwig’s life.

“He told me I had a lot of natural talent.”

With this insight from such a respected player, a light bulb went off in Ludwig’s head. He had found his path in life.

From Mackie, Ludwig went on to enroll at the University of New Orleans to study jazz guitar under Steve Masakoski. Competing against 25 other prospective students, Ludwig was one of the nine chosen to benefit from Masakoski’s tutelage. The next five and half years were spent at UNO mastering the craft and forging his own sound while earning undergraduate and master’s degrees in jazz guitar.

Ludwig plays seven-string guitar, indicating that the extra string grants him “extended bass range” on his playing. And it’s this extra range that helps Ludwig generate his inimitable sound.

“Jazz is a language. People don’t realize it, but it’s just like English, or Italian, or Russian. It’s a musician’s music and it’s part of my soul. The trick is to take the old masters and make their language a part of mine.”

More info about the Jazz Festival
The Farmer’s Market will be available in the morning. The Park at West End will be open for fun and refreshments. Retailers and restaurants will also have their doors open during the event, and since the admission to the festival is free, we encourage everyone to feel free to explore downtown and listen to their favorite bands at the park as they please. We will also have Whole Hog BBQ and Sweet Bay Coffee onsite for those who feel the music’s just too good to leave.