TED LUDWIG
8 p.m., Afterthought. $5.
After more than eight months of playing a regular Thursday night gig at the Afterthought, the Ted Ludwig Jazz Trio will celebrate the release of their new album, “Common Ground,” with a special concert tonight. Led by seven-string guitar virtuoso Ludwig, the group also features Bill Huntington on bass and Brian Brown on drums. Both Huntington and Ludwig relocated to Little Rock from New Orleans after Katrina hit and Huntington still returns to the Crescent City regularly to play with big-name acts like Ellis Marsalis. Ludwig, who studied at University of New Orleans (he was the inaugural recipient of the ASCAP/Louis Armstrong Foundation scholarship) and under the legendary Hank Mackie, has himself become a highly sought-after guitar teacher. Ludwig’s father, Ted Ludwig Sr., who plays alto sax, will sit in on the two-sets tonight. If you can’t make it out tonight, you can catch Ludwig and Huntington next Thursday and so on and during brunch every Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., next door, at Vieux Carre.