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"His approach to the guitar can only be admired,which he plays like he was born with it already in his hands".-John McLaughlin
Ulf Wakenius a grammy nominated ACT recording artist.
At 2003 he performed in a highly successful duo concert with Pat Metheny at Jazz Baltica in Germany. The concert was also televised on German TV. His latest release was “Love Is Real"(ACT) a homage to the late great Esbjörn Svensson, that tragically died this year.
The CD has recived raving reviews all over the world and went grammy nominated.
He has played and recorded with the who..s who of the jazz world a.o. Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Ray Brown, Michael Brecker, Joe Henderson, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Jack DeJohnette,Dave Liebman,Chris Potter,Kenny Kirkland, Max Roach,Milt Jackson,Bobby Hutcherson, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, James Moody, Hank Jones and Roy Hargrove
He has also toured with his own groups featuring: Mike Brecker, Ray Brown and Joey Calderazzo.
The beginning
Ulf Wakenius was born in Halmstad, Sweden on April 16, 1958. He began playing the guitar at the age of 11, inspired by other guitarists in the neighbourhood of his new hometown, Gothenburg.
After picking up the guitar Ulf never looked back. In the beginning he was inspired by virtuoso electric blues guitar players but soon moved to more jazz-orientated music. John McLaughlin became Ulf's new guitar hero. (John later wrote liner notes for one of Ulf's solo-albums).
At the age of 17 Ulf was already established as a jazz musician playing with different Swedish groups. During the following years he toured all over Europe. In the beginning of the '80s Ulf founded the duo "Guitars Unlimited" together with Peter Almqvist. They toured in many parts of the world and appeared frequently on Swedish Television. The highlight in their career was a performance in the 1985 Melody Grand Prix, a historic event which was seen by 600 million viewers, (probably the the largest audience a jazz-guitar duo has
ever had).
In the mid-'80s Ulf also received the opportunity to record a solo album in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He was fortunate to be able to gather together such fantastic musicians as Sivuca, Luizao, Paolo Braga (Elis Regina), Nico Assumpcao (Milton Nascimento) among others. The record became a hit in Sweden with considerable airplay. The "Brazil venture" was the beginning of a life-long love of the Brazilian culture.
In the late '80s Ulf began playing with the late great Danish bass giant Niels-Henning ..rstedt-Pedersen. Their collaboration was very fruitful, resulting in concerts , several recordings, playing for the then-President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
In the beginning of the '90s Ulf started to work in different projects together with American and European top musicians. The group Grafitti was formed with the rhythm section from the John Scofield group, the members being the phantom drummer Dennis Chambers (now with Santana), bassist Gary Grainger, H..kon Graf ..boards and Ulf on guitar. They toured in the United States and Europe and recorded a CD which was very well received. He also started a collaboration with the bass icon Ray Brown. Ulf has 10 solo albums to his name and has recorded several albums as a sideman together with many jazz legends.
Dear Ulf, Thank you for making the connection with me. I am Domina Catrina, Asian transgendered ambient jazz guitarist. I just made my first ever all-self conceived and executed CD album, "The Book Of Worlds". I hope you will honour me by going to the official Domina Catrina myspace page and listen to the mp3 samples there.
Debut album "Groovy!" out on June 16th! A fantastic review from the leading UK soul site Soulchoonz and airplay in San Fransisco, London, Vienna, Montenegro, Frankfurt... Ooh, groovy!
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