Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Father and Son (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Father and Son (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:15 minutes | 951 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music

Whether father Ulf did actually place a guitar in the crib of his baby son Eric or not, here they now are unite as a guitar duo on “Father and Son”, a personal album and a virtuoso conversation in the art of contemporary jazz guitar. They can swing or play gentle ballads together, go extrovert and percussive, they can tell stories from far-off lands, or sometimes from their Swedish homeland. Ulf and Eric Wakenius have a sensitivity and a sense of atmosphere which creates magical guitar moments.

The musical backgrounds of father and son are very different. Ulf Wakenius had ten years as a member of the Oscar Peterson Quartet and also worked with the two legends of the bass, Ray Brown and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. He is known for his collaborations with great jazz figures such as Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Michel Legrand, and of course for his work with the singer Youn Sun Nah. He is not just one of the most busy and in-demand players, but also the most creative jazz guitarists of our era. His son Eric, by contrast was born in 1988 and surrounded as a teenager by the rock and pop music of the nineties. After that, he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, where he picked up many different stylistic directions from that city’s musical melting pot. “He has played a lot of electric guitar”, explains Wakenius, “but — like me — he has fallen in love with the acoustic guitar and its many possibilities.”

The two guitarists take the opportunity on “Father And Son” to explore and to exploit these multiple possibilities to the full: “Irish Vagabond” combines full-on Irish folk music with Arabic elements. “Mistral” is rhythmically punchy, almost like a rock tune, and also has echoes of Al Di Meola. In this tune Ulf Wakenius recounts an experience he had while on tour with Youn Sun Nah. At the Avignon Festival, a powerful wind from the South “almost blew me off the stage, so I decided to write a song about it.” Their “Eleanor Rigby” is captivating; as they honour the Beatles, they achieve a sonority remarkably close to a string quartet. “Paco’s Delight” pays tribute to the unforgettable Paco de Lucía, but their Spanish flamenco technique is also imbued with the buoyancy and verve of Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club swing. With their arrangement of the jazz-fusion classic “Birdland”, Ulf and Eric Wakenius remember another of the pantheon of musical immortals, Joe Zawinul. And finally, Eric Wakenius takes the listener by surprise as a highly persuasive singer in the album’s title track by Cat Stevens, which deals with a tricky father-son relationship. “Eric and I are luckier – we don’t have those problems,” says Ulf Wakenius. The song also justifies its place in the selection because Cat Stevens has a Swedish mother and a close connection to Sweden.

Since this album is a family matter, it feels natural for both men to show their affection for their native country. They do that in a respectful, Nordic and melancholy way in “Meine schöne Heimat / Vem kan segla förutan vind”, but they also remember the most significant Swedish jazz musician of recent times, Esbjörn Svensson who died so tragically early. Ulf Wakenius was the first musician to do a tribute album (“Love is Real”) in 2008, while the pianistic genius Svensson was still alive. That was an album full of surprise; the ways Wakenius found to bring the e.s.t. compositions so convincingly into the sphere of the guitar were astonishing. The medley of “Dodge The Dodo” and “When God Created The Coffee Break” which Eric and Ulf play as a duet here is stupendous. And it all sounds far easier than it is. As Wakenius has remarked: “to master an acoustic guitar is really to tame a beast, but if you succeed, the rewards are tremendous!” In “Father And Son”, the listener can now also reap those remarkably rich rewards.

Tracklist:
1. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Intro – Birdland (Excerpt) (01:09)
2. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Irish Vagabond (06:10)
3. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Meine Schöne Heimat -Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind (02:55)
4. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Mistral (05:24)
5. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Once Upon a Time in America (03:08)
6. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Paco’s Delight (03:37)
7. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Scarborough Fair (02:06)
8. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Dodge the Dodo, When God Created the Coffebreak (03:53)
9. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Eleanor Rigby (04:55)
10. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Father and Son (04:23)
11. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Birdland (06:44)
12. Ulf Wakenius & Eric Wakenius – Bonus Track – Help the Poor (05:44)

Personnel:
Ulf Wakenius – acoustic guitar
Eric Wakenius – acoustic guitar & vocals

Download: