Ulf Wakenius , Charlie Parker goes heavy metal

[AlejandroGuitarra001]

ahahaha so stupid thats just jazz with distortion......he play very good but its silly to say jazz metal

[CroissantOrange]

 What's this? Donna Lee? Sounds really bad regardless of being metal or jazz. BTW, metal's really bad thank you so much.

[MakeTeaNotWar0]

people play music they like - if they don't like heavy metal (or rock) they wouldn't waste four minutes at a concert playing it. he shows that there is more than jazz to the audience. not to proove he's better than anyone

now stop it

[ZupraVisor]

proof enough that jazz players are the most versatile players ever

[upT3mpo]

An orange over here, a pear over there, a banana over there.

All tasty fruit, why not eat fruit salad instead of the same one each day?

Music is life! Many different experiences. Learn from them all. Good day :)

[jtromsness]

the only thing bad about that performance was the mustache

[MrStrangediva]

God! Jazzsnobs really depress me! We metalheads big up Jazz Musicians and encourage people to Listen! We practise hard, learn theory and aspire to keep progressing and We still get Grief! You know, If Jazz gets any more exclusive there'll be one guy left on the planet,sulking in a cupboard, refusing to play because" Dizzy wouldn't do it that way"! Be Nice Mr Antisocial Jazzfart or We will move next door to you! Grrrr!!!

[martinjp1958]

Hey, this guy's brilliant.

[Henkehakansson]

I wonder if this is actually Parker stuff, or he's just showing off improv. Ulf - when he plays "straight" jazz is one of the most underrated ones, and the worlds best kept secret. I think Sco and Stern has played something similar, but not for that long though. Just a couple of short burts within a bar or two... great stuff anyway.

[FenceThis]

@Henkehakansson nothing underrated or hidden about Ulf -he´s been widely recognized as an absolute top class master and pioneer for decades. And besides ; what he does here is performed on a fullblood jazz guitar rigged with inch thick strings -not a solid body fiberglass axe with spider web strings,30 frets and Floyd-Rose system. The real deal.

[Henkehakansson]

@FenceThis Widely recognized? Don't think so. At least not in his/my native country Sweden. Among fellow musicians and guitarists he may be well known, but still just one in the crowd, albeit a good crowd. He played with Oscar Peterson and his own stuff are as top notch as anyone elses. But skip the thing about how known or unknown he is. He's top notch anyway. Still underrated, and deserves wider recognition, no matter how wide it is today...:-)!

[FenceThis]

@Henkehakansson Ulf did play with Oscar P and Niels Henning and Pat Metheny, so jazz audience ought to know about his qualities.I think it´s all about landing a fat record contract with a major american publisher to get all the PR stuff going,but they seem to favourize american artists, and Ulf is such a nice humble guy,not pushy or egocentric in any way -just in it for the music.Same thing with Andreas Öberg, -maybe the 2 of them should do a duo project and make a swe-invasion !

[wohodude100]

@Henkehakansson of course its parker stuff. Just listen to the parts in between the power chords sections and hes playing over the changes and throwing in some bird over rhythm changes

[Brainwrapband]

Awesome solo! 

[3shiftgtr]

do I see a pair of Lab series in the backline?

[gusanitodelvergel]

Hard Bebop?

[TheApeskull]

my god!!!

[TheApeskull]

My god!

[TheApeskull]

my god!

[DamaDoJazz]

O que é isto, gente? esse cara existe?

[Bernardrill]

He is just warming up.

Some fucker gave tumbs down to ALL coments in this page, so I had to tumb 'em all up.

Anyway, Ulf''s just kidding. He does that in his sleep.

A monster!

[Alexander1991]

Needs more clean sound, hate this kinda typical Gibson sound.

[SevenCircles]

I love this sound even for Jazz, don´t like hollowbody.

[helluvagun]

It's a "hollowbody", thin though!

I'd love to try it out - "clean"!

[helluvagun]

@Alexander1991

The sound from the guitar is put thru' many effects. The bottomline is. This is a great "clean sounding" jazz-guitar.

[willowperson]

This sounds like warm-up exercise, theres no tension building up....can`t even hear the whole thing, it hurts

[Zaspor]

I think he did mighty fine for being on a semi-hollow.

[helluvagun]

@willowperson

It's a warm-up exercise for sure, but

please check out Ulf Wakenius with NHOP and Oscar Petersen! If you don't know or understand he's a great guitarist!

[mbiernacki9]

For many many people this guy is the best guitarist in our time...

all tones nutes what he play is real he never play playback or something...

anyway - great video 5/5

[barimando]

This is real.

[greenez62]

sure dudes......when i first saw stanley jordan i looked closely and thought sureley this isn't real. but i was wrong ..sometimes the video does lie, how could he sync such intricate material, no way just accept it . this guy kicks ass whether it be rock or jazz

[Djangoblackbird]

You guys know this isn't real right? Overdubbed; Wakenius doesn't play heavy metal.

[greenez62]

ulf can play anything ..obviously,are you semi retarded or somtehing, this guy is one of the greats of our era . whether you agree or not

[Djangoblackbird]

I didn't say he can't. I just don't think he IS in this clip. Not for real anyway.

[helluvagun]

@greenez62

thankx

[thehatmill]

needs more drive and a whammy bar :D

[epilp2]

Has anyone else considered that this isn't real? I'm not 100% sure, but I am highly suspicious.

It sounds just like a dub; some notes don't match up completely visually and aurally, and I bet he can play cleaner than this.

If it is a dub, props to the creator as it's the most realistic I've seen, but I still really cannot believe this is the actual audio to this video. It just doesn't add up.

[Kapteinar]

This is real. I have the record this is from.

Ulf Wakenius - Back to the roots.

He plays a lot of different styles on the record, and this is one of the tracks.

[kingofskateop]

There is no technical mistakes or missed notes... Its just a semi hollow jazz guitar and thats how it sounds: Warm... Its not easy to play this guitar as Ibanez type shredding active PU metal guitars...

[upT3mpo]

Who gives a fuck what style it is? Stop being so anal you tight arses. The guy is shredding and it sounds sweeeet!!! Charlie Parker would be smiling!

[idontbelieveok]

i love metal and i respect jazz, and like jazz guitar very much. But i hate how jazz fans try to trash every aspect of rock guitar, like if it just trash, saying that being technically correct is bad? that using arpeggios is bad? btw Yngwie's problem is that he NEVER evolved from the moment he released his first ablum, but you cant the merit from him or other great rock musicians.

[MrUsedBooks]

@idontbelieveok I think it mostly has to do with the fact that most metal fans criticize aspects of every other genre of music that they feel is not metal enough. Then say things like metal is the most technical form of music ever.

[idontbelieveok]

@MrUsedBooks yeah, that's a problem... when ignorant people act like they know so much about music and try to bash other genres.. happens a lot with metal fans, you are right... and they tend to be very superficial and try to sound very deep.

[MrUsedBooks]

@idontbelieveok I don't know why some people feel the need to criticize other genres of music that they don't like.

[wohodude100]

@idontbelieveok No, jazz people trash metal because of its lack of musicality, because it places technicality above the music and then worships that. I've yet to hear Yngwie play a phrase that actually moved anyone musically. Metal sucks, rock sucks and its kind of like religion, you only like it because you grew up with it. Its like musical junk food, it tastes good but its absolute garbage

[idontbelieveok]

@wohodude100 even though im a metal fan, i really do agree with you to a certain point. But when you talk like that about ALL metal, and about ALL people, i think you should dig more, and also think a little bit more, not all people and not all rock musicians are like that. i agree on what you said about it being like religion for a lot of people.. but i think you dont understand jazz if you say that about metal, because jazz is extremely technical @@. Technically superior to metal actually..

[SevenCircles]

@idontbelieveok

not really true, listen to Yngwie´s classical concerto album and you know that he has developed new phrasing techniques, listen to Vivace and Toccata from that album.

[idontbelieveok]

@SevenCircles ?? i was not talking about yingwie or his techniques but about jazz

[idontbelieveok]

@SevenCircles yeah, good, once in 30 years... in anycase, his style has not evolved. but my point is that.. fuck.. why do they always want to bring up malmsteen as if he were all there is to metal gutiar @@ that is my point, go listen to someone else!

[SevenCircles]

@idontbelieveok

That´s not true listen to Toccata or Vivace from his classical album for instance and you can hear that he has indeed evolved.

[MrBonzo90]

I'm from Sweden, and I've seen this guy live many times. This is a joke, or an experiment maybe. He's a brilliant jazz guitarist.

[univibe23]

Parker my ass! He's rolling in his grave! What a load of musical crap this is--this is an affront to music in general..must be a parody (hee, hee)! Leave this kind of playing to Malmsteen THE Bach n' Roller extraordinaire!! That said..this guy is a great Jazz player!

[earthchild100]

that's just what he named the song dude

[HjalmarGuitarMaster]

well, he ain't trying to be some technical shred master!

[VetleZorZ]

S L O P P Y

[lindseyblair]

It sounds sloppy to you because you don't understand the harmony. He is not just running scales and arpeggios like the metal guys.

[VetleZorZ]

Eh, no. Sloppy as in technique. Alot of missed notes and such. That was what i meant.

[unibomber111]

@VetleZorZ like your moms bjs

[mwljazzguitar]

What the fuck

[rpizell]

is this guy putting us on?

parody?

[Thatguy301]

Anyone else notice that even while Ulf is shredding you can tell that he's really a jazz musician. It's actually kind of cool, taking the musicianship of one style (metal/rock) and combining with the theory behind another (jazz).

[rickso12]

my god, this is GREAT

[moblaque]

While Ulf is without question a phenominal guitarist, you cant turn jazz into metal. to many nuances are missed. Nice try but uh uh!!

[Upritebass]

I agree.... but maybe it can serve as an intro to people who listen to heavy metal but know little about jazz.

[IcarusJazz]

Guys--being a jazz player is so much more than playing jazz music. That's what I love about the progressive nature of jazz.

[gravitinusXVI]

Actually, playing Metal is much more than barely pumping up the distortion

Besides, why the hell non-metalheads live in their ivory tower, and know only...Malmsteen? Where have you all been during the last 20 years?

Please open your ears, and listen for instance to "Focus" by Cynic.

[ideosynchronicity]

@gravitinusXVI Lol, what's the difference? Cynic was almost 20 years ago too, and like Malmsteen, they are still making music. Also, both band haven't evoluted in all these years.

[gravitinusXVI]

@ideosynchronicity Actually, Malmsteen dates back to one decade before Cynic. The main point however, is that the album "Focus" is still innovative after almost 20 years. It doesn't sound old at all.

I pointed it out because it's just an example of how Metal can be well-played and musically-technically interesting, also to those who practice more demanding music genres.

There are tons of "fusion-metal" bands out there who play really awesome stuff.

[krokis64]

Whatever jeshuaew says are true and right!!!

Love you for hearing Al Di meola in this.... i heard it to

[foowah7]

haha...when he plays that black les paul, he gets an amazing jazz tone...and he managed to get a metal tone out of that guitar. awesome.

[trojanlol]

xD u r right, i think it's an Ibanez AS200, the same one that John Scofield use.

[ridleyrockets]

This is horrible.

[otnas01]

great!Look forward

[otnas01]

Hey man I was just having a friendly pop.

I love all styles.But please post your clip so that I could hear what you've got to say

[otnas01]

Hey rockers every now and then we Jazzers like to do a bit of shredding with more than just the Blues scale at our disposal.How about showing us what you can do without a distortion pedal and strings that are heavier than a set of 9's.

[noangels]

hey mate,lets see you do some string flapping vibrato and big country pedal steel bends on your jumbo strings tuned to A:p Joking aside I love bebop lines(just bought a parker book to add that style to my vocab)There isnt one holy grail of playing,if you play music good no matter the style its good!as for pedals,nahh loud amps-you have to be on the ball playing a loud overdriven amp!there not forgiving in nature!

[custardmonger]

I cannot believe that there are Youtube viewers who are SO IGNORANT AND BORED as to launch into a lengthy comparison between Ulf and Yngwie, am I the only sane person here?!! In what strange retarded universe could anyone possibly draw a parallel between two such disparate players.."GRINDCORE NOT METAL"? Are you fucking retarded?! Jazz players using distortion is old news, neophytes....

[drunkenxtiger]

thats why jazz and metal do not go together. just play straight up fusion or dont...

[tritoneblues]

Ulfs a great player, think he might of been having an off day though (still better than I could ever do.)He has/had the fattest jazz tone I ever heard when he played with Mr Peterson using a Lpaul, here his tones like fingernails down a blackboard.

[RacerXSuperhero]

I think it's because of the tinny Fender distorted tones from the Twin he seems to be using but, nevertheless, great player.

[reservoirboss]

sounds like grindcore not metal.

[korjeklokismo]

I think that it sounds like swedish dansband.

[NicolaBenso]

he sucks

[steveey251]

JohnFred C you are right. he doesn't even know WHY he's playing all those notes!

[JohnFredC]

And what is the value of this beyond a guitarist's daily warm-up exercises? The 12 year-olds at the local guitar store sound similar and, if anything, are even faster. Doesn't matter if it is in Bb or whatever. Wanking is wanking, even if the technique is sophisticated (which it isn't, in this case).

[kevinm4435]

these probably are his daily warm-up exercises - ulf wakenius is an extremely capable jazz guitarist. don't judge him based on this video.

[AlGrubis]

What this has to do with yardbird I haven't the faintest idea.

[takefive54]

garbage.

[vendium]

jag var roddare åt ulf idag ;D

[Modes9]

I love it! It's like Bud Powell with Adrian Vandenberg's tone. This is what Yngwie should be doing now...

[niklarcsh]

amazingly clean :o

[MaximusDowns]

inspirational stuff

[HumbleBoy69]

Woooow - A shredding jazz guitarist!

[djkocisi]

am i crazy or does this sound like confirmation?

[coolerdude111]

you are crazy, he's outlining Bb rhythm changes

[steveey251]

He is at points......but its so hard to tell, and so out, hes just wanking in this vid.

[coolerdude111]

yea definitely. No offense to ulf wakenius, but its almost like its shred for a while, then throw in some power chords, shred some more, then go into some bebop licks, then he decides to play some changes and plays like bird over rhythm changes.

[djkocisi]

you dont hear the confimation melody? and he could very well be outlining the confimation, ie bb rhythm changes.

[trojanlol]

Is it possible I heard fex notes from Donna Lee ? 0:33 -> the 3firsts bars ?

[wohodude100]

@trojanlol nope, try using your ears next time

[levisdrummer]

WOW....he plays with pat metheny,and then plays sth. like that...respect

[diminishedlogic]

He starts blowin some SHIT at 130

[justinricheyBASS]

i kinda wish he would blown over a bird song.

[qweasd1993]

hahaha yea me too!! i thought he's gonna play billies bounce or confirmation in heavy metal version!! hahahaha

well idk!! does he playin birds songs in this vid? i dont think so!! hahaha

[bluetrainlocomotion]

Respect!!!

[MrGul]

Hahaha! That was kick-ass!

[robibm2003]

I used to tell kids who were learning guitar to not just listen to rock players, but to listen to guys like Parker, Trane, Oscar Peterson, T-Bone Walker, etc to nick ideas off of them to help broaden their playing. So the heavy metal Parker thing was a good idea here that wasn't executed with any elan. This is what would happen if Chris Impelliteri tried to do a jazz song. Technically there, but as flavorful as a wet cracker.

[insanitybreach]

its really awesomely flavorful. its just more mature sounding. using many chromatic notes to build giant lines. look at shawn lane for example, he shredded a lot, but around melody. just like shredders rusty cooley, kiko leourio(or however you spell that), they shred maturely. its hard to like at first so yea.....

[MikeAnnan]

I disagree with you. It lost its flavor after about 20-30 seconds and didn't get it back until the last 20-30 seconds. You can call it "shredding maturely" and surely Ulf knows exactly what he's playing, but I like to call it taste. I just don't like what he did here. That coming from a guy who loves shred guitar.

I love Shawn Lane, he shreds tastefully. Although, I disagree again with you on the topic of Rusty Cooley. He's EXTREMELY technical, but there's no flavor in his playing at all.

[Andrealphus88]

ecco la dimostrazione d come uno ke studia jazz gliele da..ad uno ke suona heavy

[Thorbass1]

this is kinda noobish lol

[thickerstrings]

Not my usual thing, and not really 'metal,' but I like how the man doesn't dismiss the genre, and this coming from a metalhead. And the chops! Anybody who can play with Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson is great enough for me.

[jimmyjubejube]

ugh... y did he put on distortion???

[scottbos68]

id rather hear some music

[Lahed92801]

Why does it seem kinda dirty? >_<

[MagnusFBG]

Sure, Yngwie is fast but that's about it. Just playing with speed gets quite boring after a while... Yngwie always soaks his guitar in so much distortion and he plays so frickin' fast that you almost can't hear what tones he's playing. Music isn't about speed, it's about expressing things from your mind, and for some guitarist the fingers are faster than the mind...

[patrissimo]

"...and for some guitarist the fingers are faster than the mind..."

Did you mean and for MOST guitarists? Guitarists also seem to be the most prone to having volume issues.

[patrissimo]

There is no heavy metal at all here until about 2:30 into the piece. The distortion Ulf is using is not even a metallic distortion but a safer, jazz crowd friendly, slight distortion. Ulf is a sophisticated player with chops, but this video seems to show that he doesn't use distortion often (not that he needs to). Things he could get away with with a clean sound come out as slop with distortion.

[BigAlf16]

music is not only about speed. however, some of us can think and hear and enjoy fast lines. I gained an appreciation for fast lines by listening to pagannini.....just because it's fast doesn't mean it isn't musical.

[Thevi2Olin]

Great playing Ulf. But, ehh,whats the point here? Charlie was not only about speed and jazz impro. His phrases are full of dynamics and that gets lost in the distortion. Still, good playing!!

[lapmarty]

i agre to the fact that ulf is greatly supeior to mamlsteen...look malmsteen is playing teh same shit in e-minor since his beginning...he never went outiside his comfort zone...where h can impress evryone with a few arpegio..and lots of minor runs.

this aint atonal at all...you can find root key evrewhere...lol devlopp your hear.

[MagnusFBG]

the big diffrence between yngwie malmsteen and ulf wakenius is that ulf plays jazz music and yngwie plays shit music

[CudBucket]

Wow. You're a genius.

[Soamsey]

Classic line, Magnus!

[johnpizarelli89]

This isn't worth comparing to malmsteens playing, sure the speed is similar, but the harmony is very different in quite a lot of parts. Well, i still don't like it anyway haha

[lapmarty666]

this guy aint a malmsteen wannabe...lol malmsteen played great in e minor.. dont let him, venture in any other key moauhaha..this guy is great just watched one night in vienna with oscar peterson. this clip dont do him justice.

[kuhy829371]

you guys don´t undersand anything -.-'

[pepecoolratzz]

I prefer Charlie Parker, jejeje...

[conn6m]

so do I

[butrunioigneor]

As if he's a 'Malmsteen wannabe'. I'm sure he would rather eat his own shit than sound like Malmsteen.

[butrunioigneor]

How come people are so nasty on here? Ulf is one of the best jazz guitarists alive today. The very fact that he holds one of the most important posotions in jazz, sidekick to Oscar Peterson, proves this. Listen to him, and learn. Especially from his touch in songs such as 'Requiem'. Don't insult him because his "sweeps = Mush". (And they clearly aren't). He's just doing what he loves, well. Better than anyone here.

[mothermoore]

Funny thing is is if he didnt tell anyone this was Parker I doubt anyone would have noticed and said it was killer playing ha-

[RyanOFelt]

He doesn't outline the changes well enough except in a select few places.

[zaxmania]

lacks syncopation~

[jcaff89]

do you even know what syncopation is?

[Willie27]

If play a plenty of Malmsteem's licks without any distortion should I call it "Malmsteem goes Jazz"?

Come on!!! This is bullshit. He's a Pat Metheny wannabe, a Pat Martino wannabe, a Malmsteem wannabe!!! He must decide who he wants to be!!! LOL

[laciaci]

lol, u have right man!

[zeomebuch]

lol the comments... read more about wakenius if u think about just "noises"... z0mg

[jerfarme]

He is definitely playing Bird lines, and I thought it was cool except the heavy metal,distortion,lack of melody,or accompainment part. He probably cant do that without distortion though. The lines are executed well though.

[neuralcode]

to be fair, there are some patent bird licks in there... at 4 seconds and 13 seconds, for instance.

[Bowserjoe]

Well seeing as the video's only 4:10, how could we possibly hear a lick at 4:13?

[aShot74]

at 4 second, then at 13 second.

[schlappohr]

This shows the existing prejudices resulting from a lack of knowledge concerning Parker's fantastic music, which has nothing to do with this noise

[davedutch]

This have nothing to do with charlie parker, i dont hear II V licks, only pentatonics blues licks, u can better call it ulf meets gary moore

[custardmonger]

With all due respect, you evidently have no understanding whatsoever of scalar substitutions, chromatic passing tones, etc. More importantly, you have evidently not evolved your ears to the point where you can distinguish between diatonic and non-diatonic playing.There are precious few "pentatonics blues licks"(sic) in evidence here. Im sorry but one cannot simply parade ones harmonic ignorance for the world to see. Have you no dignity?!

[jcaff89]

yeah its quite obvious a lot of this is atonal.

[ambi10]

you think this is atonal?!

you dont know atonal brother.

[jcaff89]

ok...

[Ohgr]

I enjoy his music more, when it isn't full of mindless runs and effects. He has some great compositions.

[lapsteelmando]

cool.