John Ginty playing the Wonder Bar

Many rock ’n’ rollers may jump from style to style and band to band, but blues musicians are normally affable, willing to help each other out and committed to their instruments and craft. Affable, willing to help out and committed to his instrument is a good way to describe John Ginty and his approach to blues-rock.

He began playing the Hammond B-3 organ in high school, and found success as a keyboard player in the first band of pedal steel master Robert Randolph. Ginty recorded and toured extensively with Robert Randolph and the Family Band before eventually forming his own Hammond B-3 organ-centered group.

Since his time with Randolph, Ginty has recorded or shared stages with Citizen Cope, Carlos Santana, Matthew Sweet, Sheryl Crow and Jewel. Most recently, Ginty has been a valued addition to the lineup with the Dixie Chicks. Early next year, he will embark on another tour of several months with the trio of women, who are based in central Texas.

“Early on,” Ginty explained from his Somerset County home earlier this week, “you learn that playing the Hammond B-3 is a commitment. It’s a 450-pound commitment.”

Ginty and his band have two solid albums out, “No Filter,” released last year on the Dover-based American Showplace Music label, a home for blues and roots-rock musicians in New Jersey and New York City, and “Bad News Travels.”

Tonight at the Wonder Bar, Ginty makes his Asbury Park debut with his own band. Most of the musicians have been with him on his first two albums. Ginty, on Hammond B-3 and occasional vocals, will be accompanied by Andrei Koribanics, drums; Paul Kuzik, bass; Mike Buckman, guitar and Paul Gerdts, vocals.

“That’s my regular band, and at this point I have a half dozen special guests lined up,” Ginty said. Confirmed guests tonight include Sandy Mack on harmonica and guitarist and singer-songwriter Chris Jacobs.

New York City-based vocalist Alexis P. Suter lends her soulful vocals to a track on “No Filter,” as does a famous rapper from Newark, Redman. Redman popped into Ginty’s recording session at Showplace Studios and was so impressed, he asked to write some lyrics and do some rapping on one of Ginty’s blues-based tunes. Ginty and producer Ben Elliott were super-pleased with the results, so they included the rap track on “No Filter.”

“I’ve always been a secret fan of the real hip-hop, and a lot of the diehard blues fans love this rap track on the record,” he explained. “It’s just a solid blues instrumental and he put a rap to it.”

You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the original blues, blues-rock, soul-jazz and melodic funk tunes Ginty and his band serve up tonight around 9 at the Wonder Bar, Fifth and Ocean Avenues, Asbury Park. Opening for the John Ginty Band is Autumn City. Tickets are $12 at the door. Call 732-502-8886, or visit www.johngintymusic.com for more information.

Baraka, Ginsberg at Newark Symphony Hall

The late poet, cultural historian, author, performer and activist Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) was an acquaintance of mine, and for many years in the 1980s and 90s, Baraka was a frequent visitor to the Rutgers New Brunswick campus for poetry readings, often orchestrated by Eliot Katz, Danny Shot and others.

Once you saw Baraka sing and recite some of his poetry accompanied by jazz musicians, you never forgot him.

The late Baraka and Allen Ginsberg often read poetry together, and the two enjoyed a lifelong friendship. When Ginsberg found out he had inoperable liver cancer, one of the first persons he reached out to was Baraka, as Baraka was raised in Newark and Ginsberg was raised in nearby Paterson.

Ginsberg had just sold his significant archives of dozens of file cabinets and thousands of photographs, journals, song lyrics, poems and books to Stamford University. Knowing of his coming demise, he phoned Baraka to ask if he needed money. Baraka declined the money, though for years he ran an arts and performance space, Kiamo’s Blues People, out of his house or near his house in the south ward of Newark. Baraka died at 79 in January, 2014, after suffering for years with diabetes.

Given that former south ward councilman Ras Baraka, Baraka’s son, has since become mayor of Newark, it was nice to see people in his administration successfully put on the first Blues People International Festival last week.

The week’s worth of free concerts showcased a wide range of talents, including Four For Christ, Madam Pat Tandy, the dean of New Jersey harmonica players, Rob Paparozzi, Antoinette Montague, Guy Davis, Ray Rodriguez y Swing Sabroso, Valerie Adams, Ronnel Bey, Bradford Hayes and Leo Johnson among others.

The finale for the Blues People International Festival was held last Saturday at the Terrace Room at Newark’s Symphony Hall on Broad Street.

The old fashioned organ jam brought together the Newark area’s premier Hammond B-3 players and the event was headlined by organist — composer Rhoda Scott.

Other Hammond B-3 players on the bill included Kyle Koehler, Mel Davis, and Davis’ teenaged nephew, Matthew Whitaker. The various blues-based organ groups were accompanied by top-notch players like guitarist Dave Stryker, tenor saxophonists Donald Braden and Jerry Weldon, drummer Cecil Brooks III and vocalists Vanessa Rubin and Gloria Anderson.

Kudos to Baraka, raised in a family that knew the value of an arts education, and all those involved in organizing the first Blues People International Festival, which did a great job of filling the void left by the defunct Newark Jazz Festival.

The former Newark Jazz Festival was held every November in the 1990s and always concluded with a highly anticipated Hammond B-3 organ jam.

Saturday’s show was spectacular and all of last week’s free concerts in downtown Newark did a great job of drawing people in to see and enjoy the new businesses and restaurants that have opened in downtown Newark in recent years.

To get on the e-mail list for what hopefully will be next November’s Blues People Festival International, point your web browser to www.ci.newark.nj.us/ blues-people-festival- international.

Richard Skelly hosts the eclectic “Low-Budget Blues Program” from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays on 88.7, WRSU-FM, New Brunswick. More information is at www.radio.rutgers.edu.