Album Notes

Swedish-born, Boston-based jazz guitarist Bjorn Wennas' debut CD, Early Summer Sketch, starts out with a sizzle. "Off" is an uptempo jaunt with a memorable melody, stinging guitar chops, and crisp sax/guitar unison. Wennas' solo has a tang to it as it dances with his band's bubbling rhythm. The next cut, "Early Summer Sketch" slows things down, featuring some of the disc's best sax/guitar interplay in a brooding mood. A fine debut; a nicely interactive band with a definite future.

- Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

Bjorn Wennas... is one of these young guitar players that don't seem to know any limits to what he can do with an instrument. It is excellently played, not only by the guitarist himself and saxophonist Kristof Bacso..

-Bertil Danielsson, Falukuriren


Exciting lines that promises more...This sounds really good. ..we can hear mood setting music- infused with curiosity, visions of the future and a bit of melancholy...Wennas himself is an interesting guitarist. Above all, his interplay with saxophonist Kristof Bacso is excellent.

-Torsten Carlsson, Länstidningen

Interesting Swedish Guitar debutant.
Early Summer Sketch is mostly filled with Bjorn Wennas' original compositions, but at the same time a collective effort with contributions by vocalist Carmen Marsico on some of the tracks. This is thematically through-composed quartet jazz, not resting in the bebop tradition, but rather in the fusion of the seventies and with traces of rock in the driving rhythm section, but still with a lot of air. Bjorn Wennas' lyrical and harmonically free melodic thinking may lead your thoughts to Chick Corea's early albums (even though Wennas' quartet is without piano) .

- Ulf Gustavsson, Uppsala Nya Tidning

This debut CD shows a stable instrumentalist.. What I really appreciate is the will to do something personal.

- Ove Wall, Om Jazz



Björn Wennås is a jazz guitar player and composer from Sweden that with his debut CD Early Summer Sketch is looking to make a mark on the jazz scene in the US and back in Europe.

Björn grew up in Södertälje, Sweden, in a family that loved music. Both his father and his youngest sister are accomplished piano players and Björn began studying classical and electric guitar at the public music school at the age of 12, writing music and performing with local bands. In 1993 Björn moved to Uppsala to study at the University there. While studying musicology he discovered an interest in jazz which led him to move to Boston in 1999 and to study with Mick Goodrick, Hal Crook, Ed Tomassi, Dave Santoro, Greg Hopkins and, last but not least, Jon Damian who left a lasting impression on him.

In Boston Björn met some fantastic musicians in Ziv Ravitz, Jeff Denson and Kristof Bacso. Björn began playing with Ziv and Jeff early on, eventually adding Kristof to the band. The musicianship of the three and their different musical and ethnic backgrounds, inspired Björn to push his creativity as a composer and skill on his instrument, writing music with the quartet in mind. Adding Carmen Marsico on two tracks on the CD seemed to make the music and the sounds he imagined, contemporary jazz with a rock and pop sensibility, complete.

Currently as the leader of Boston based Björn Wennås Quartet (and with gigs as a sideman with the New York based R&B vocalist Crissi Poland and Boston based vocalist Marianne Sullivan), Björn is now involved in a recording project featuring vocalist Carmen Marsico, due to be released in the end of August, 2003. Apart from projects and gigs as a sideman, Björn is now promoting himself as a composer and leader of his own quartet and playing gigs around the New England area in support of his debut CD, Early Summer Sketch.