A pedigreed jazz guitarist with blues roots dating back to B.B. King’s “Three O’Clock Blues,” Newborn has given the world an outstanding collection of instrumentals in both genres.

Apart from his own six songs, he covers Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” and his late jazz pianist brother Phineas Jr.’s “Newborn Blues,” a slow tune featuring subtle but stellar Hammond B-3 work by Memphis bandleader Charlie Wood.

Over the last five decades, Newborn has shifted his base from Memphis to New York and back again, playing on tons of records. He’s put out several solo albums, but unfortunately all are out of print except this 2004 session and his last release, 1998’s “Up City.”

With “New Born,” he makes up for the lack of titles under his own name by taking everything he knows from jazz and blues and distilling it into a summary of his life. The beauty of this album is that he often blurs the line between the two forms and creates something greater than the sum of its parts.