Ulf Karl Erik Wakenius (born 16 April 1958)[1] is a Swedish jazz guitarist, known as a member of Oscar Peterson's last quartet from 1997. He was also a member of the Ray Brown trio.[2]
Career
Wakenius in Aarhus Denmark 2018Wakenius in 2014
Wakenius was born in Halmstad and raised in Gothenburg. In the 1980s, he played with Peter Almqvist in Guitars Unlimited, playing during the intermission for 600 million viewers of the Swedish International Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1985. A stop in Rio de Janeiro resulted in three records with Sivuca: Aquarela Do Brazil (1985), Rendez-Vous in Rio (1986), and Let's Vamos (1987). He recorded Those Who Were (1996) and This Is All I Ask (1998) with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. Enchanted Moments (1996) was recorded with Lars Jansson, Lars Danielsson, and Raymond Karlsson. On Dig In (1997) he plays with Gösta Rundqvist, Yasuhito Mori, and Jukkis Uotila.
Live (2000) and The Guitar Artistry of U.W. (2002) were followed by Forever You (Stunt, 2003) and Tokyo Blue (2004) with Carsten Dahl on piano, Morten Lund on drums, and Lars Danielsson on bass.[3]
His albums for ACT Music include Notes from the Heart (2005), a tribute to Keith Jarrett with Lund and Johansson; Love Is Real (2008), Signature Edition 2 (2010), Vagabond (2012), and Momento Magico (2014).[4]
In the early 1990s, Wakenius started the group Graffiti with Dennis Chambers and Gary Grainger from the John Scofield group. They released the album Good Groove in 1994. He appeared on Duke Ellington Swings (Telarc, 1998). With Oscar Peterson he released Summernight in Munich (Telarc, 1999) and Trail of Dreams. With Ray Brown he played on Summertime (1998) and Seven Steps to Heaven (1995), as well as Some of My Best Friends Are Guitar Players (2001). With Pat Metheny he played Jazz Baltica 2003.
