Ulf Wakenius (b. April 16, 1958 in Halmstad, Sweden) is a Swedish jazz guitarist. Wakenius was a member of the Oscar Peterson quartet from 1997. He was also a member of the Ray Brown trio. Ulf Wakenius also plays with his own band, and has recorded many albums.
In the 80s he played with Peter Almqvist in Guitars Unlimited playing, among other things, during the intermission for 600 million viewers of the Swedish International Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986. A stop in Rio de Janeiro resulted in three records with Sivuca Let's Vamos, Aquarela Do Brazil and Rendez-Vouz in Rio (Sonet 1987). The cooperation with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen also started this decade, and they also recorded This Is All I Ask (Verve, 1998) and Those Who Were (Verve, 1996).
His own U.W. Group released Venture (1991) with Jack DeJohnette on drums, Bill Evans and Bob Berg on saxes, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Niels Lan Doky on piano, Chris Minh Doky and Lars Danielsson on bass. The work with American musicians continued in New York Meeting with Niels Lan Doky piano, Ira Coleman bass, and Billy Hart drums.
His Enchanted Moments (Dragon, 1997) was recorded with Lars Jansson piano, Lars Danielsson, bass and Raymond Karlsson drums. On Dig In (Sittel, 1997) he plays with Gösta Rundqvist piano, Yasuhito Mori bass and Jukkis Uotila drums. Live (Dragon), The Guitar Artistry of U.W. (Dragon, 2002). After that came Tokyo Blue (2003) with Carsten Dahl piano, Morten Lund drums and Yasuhito Mori bass; Forever you (Stunt, 2003), with Carsten Dahl, piano, Morten Lund drums and Lars Danielsson bass; and Checkin' In (Megaphon, 2004) His latest release, Notes from the Hart (ACT, 2005) is a tribute to Keith Jarrett, with Lund and Johansson.
Wakenius had together with Haakon Graf piano, in the early nineties the group Graffiti with members from the John Scofield group, Dennis Chambers drums, Gary Grainger bass. He appeared on Duke Ellington Swings (Telarc, 1998); with Oscar Peterson he released Summernight in Munich (Telarc, 1999) and Trail of Dreams with Oscar Peterson and Michel Legrand (Telarc, 2000). With Ray Brown he played on Summertime (1998) and Seven Steps to Heaven (1999), as well as Some of My Best Friends Are Guitar Players (Telarc, 2001).
With Pat Metheny he played Jazz Baltica 2003. In Norway he has played with Hot Club de Norvège and Vertavo-quartet (Hot Club Records, 2005), and also participated on the record Guitaresque on Hot Club Records with Jon Larsen, Stian Mevik, Jimmy Rosenberg and others. Other contributions has been on Lisa Nilssons Små rum (2001), Cæcilie Norbys First Conversations (2002), as well as recordings by Viktoria Tolstoy and Esbjörn Svensson. 2006 he toured with his show In the Spirit of Oscar with Kjell Öhman on piano, Hans Backenroth on bass and Jocke Ekberg on drums.
