Jazz Articles about Ulf Wakenius

About Ulf Wakenius

Album Review

Ignasi Terraza: With Respect To Oscar And Niels

Read "With Respect To Oscar And Niels" reviewed by Artur Moral

by Artur Moral
October 8, 2025

Exceptionalism is often presented with a spectacular surface. However, it also hides itself behind multiple layers of deep discretion. This is true with pianist, composer, educator and record producer Ignasi Terraza. His uniqueness is based on several facts: being the first blind person in Spain to earn--a mid-1980s achievement, without today's technology--a degree in Computer Engineering; combining this accomplishment with self-taught jazz piano, becoming over the years one of the few piano players on the Iberian Peninsula with international recognition, ...

Album Review

Mette Juul: New York - Copenhagen

Read "New York - Copenhagen" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
September 14, 2021

Questo EP della cantante Mette Juul prosegue quanto espresso nel precedente Change, selezionando cinque intime ballad, quasi tutte entrate nel novero degli standard. Il titolo del disco fa riferimento alle due metropoli che hanno ospitato le session: tre brani sono stati incisi a New York in duo col chitarrista Mike Moreno mentre gli altri tre a Copenhagen (e in Svezia) in trio con Lars Danielsson al contrabbasso e i chitarristi Ulf Wakenius e Per Møllehøj che si alternano.

Live Review

Live From Old York: Ulf Wakenius, Martin Taylor & The Rheingans Sisters

by Martin Longley
April 5, 2019

Ulf Wakenius & Martin Taylor The National Centre For Early Music March 8, 2018 Martin Taylor and Ulf Wakenius are a prime pair of guitarists from their respective countries, England and Sweden. They've worked together regularly, but presumably touring mostly outside of the UK. This duo set, electric but toned down in volume, had a friendly vibe of playful competition, unavoidable when two artists are exchanging solos, besides delivering the main melody of a ...

Interview

Ulf Wakenius: Confessions of A Vagabond

by Ian Patterson
June 24, 2014

Happenstance may play a role in turning dreams into reality, but anyone who's ever realized a burning ambition will appreciate just how much hard work has paved the way. Two phone calls out of the blue almost twenty years apart opened doors to Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, that in the first case he could only have dreamt about, and in the second, he could never have imagined. In 1997, in fairly dizzying circumstances, Wakenius suddenly found himself in ...

Album Review

Ulf Wakenius: Momento Magico

Read "Momento Magico" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 3, 2014

If guitarist Ulf Wakenius' Vagabond (ACT Music, 2012) was a highlight in a discography that stretches back thirty years to Urban Experience (Dragon, 1984) then Momento Magico--which possibly raises the bar still further-- serves as an anthology of his influences both old and new. Wakenius has toured the world extensively for decades, so it's perhaps unsurprising that the rhythms and melodies he's encountered have increasingly influenced his sound and broadened his vocabulary. On this sparkling solo effort Wakenius' six strings ...

Album Review

Ulf Wakenius: Momento Magico

Read "Momento Magico" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
April 7, 2014

Momento Magico is a solo outing from Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, an exploration of three acoustic instruments--steel and nylon strung guitars and acoustic bass guitar. Wakenius undertakes this exploration across a mix of self-penned tunes and works by writers as varied as Erik Satie, Charles Trenet and Sixto Rodrigues. Wakenius is an impressively adaptable player, who's resumé includes work with Ray Brown, Youn Sun Nah and, most famously, Oscar Peterson (The OP in “Notes For OP And Wes"). ...

Album Review

Ulf Wakenius: Vagabond

Read "Vagabond" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
May 7, 2012

Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius is perhaps best known for his ten year stint in pianist Oscar Peterson's trio, following in the footsteps of guitarists Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and Joe Pass. Wakenius clocked up enough road miles with Peterson to have traveled to the moon and back, and he also toured extensively and recorded with bassists Ray Brown and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. These heavyweight associations have tended to overshadow his own projects as leader, which date back more than two ...