When Ponder's brother entered the military, he left his guitar, and Ponder picked it up. In his early teens he received lessons from the guitarist in a band for which he sang doo-wop. He was drawn to the jazz guitar he heard on the radio. While playing in a rhythm and blues band, he occasionally inserted a jazz solo. He considered hearing guitarist
Thornel Schwartz an important part of his life, when Schwartz was playing with organist
Jimmy McGriff. He was impressed by
Pat Martino when he saw Martino in the
Jack McDuff band. He also cited as influences
George Benson,
Kenny Burrell, and
Rene Thomas, though none surpassed the impact of seeing
Wes Montgomery. He learned the guitar solo from "Daily Double" (Quaker Town), the first 45 rpm single released by
Charles Earland. When Earland performed in Pittsburgh, he invited Ponder to sit-in with the band and liked what he heard. Earland promised Ponder he could become a member of the band after he finished high school. Six months after graduating, he was hired by Earland. He began playing with Earland at 17 and in the following years with
Lou Donaldson,
Houston Person,
Donald Byrd,
Stanley Turrentine, and Jimmy McGriff. He moved to Philadelphia and later New York City in the 1970s and recorded extensively as a leader. Since the late 1980s, he frequently returned to his hometown to perform with his trio of two other Pittsburgh musicians,
Gene Ludwig and
Roger Humphries. Ponder's highest charting release was ''Somebody's Child
, which reached No. 3 on the JazzWeek'' airplay chart in 2007. Ponder died of lung cancer in Pittsburgh at the age of 67 in September 2013. ==Discography==