Ulf Wakenius Enchanted Moments

Disappointing 1996 outing here from Ulf Wakenius. Enchanted Moments is the worst, unexciting type of guitar jazz you fear, where every song is sickly sweet and sounds like the theme from "Catalina: The Deerhunter" or "When I Fall In Love", the latter actually appearing on the album! Don't get me wrong, Wakenius can really play, a quick listen to the more energetic half of his quartet's 1999 live set (released 2000) would be enough to persuade you of this. John McLaughlin even writes the cover notes to Enchanted Moments to say as much, except he describes the album as pretty, which is one of those nondescripts, like "nice", and probably get's one off the obligatory hook.

However wakenius' playing (entirely acoustic here) is steeped in the blues and he offers a beautifully poised, slightly choral, timbre, which is best on his lightning flurries that suddenly escape as if surging up to explode the volcanic plug which has congealed during tedious bouts of uninspired chordal regurgitation which comprises the majority of the rather too considered playing herein.

There's only the one composition by Wakenius himself, his preferring to revise interpretations of standards, with Rodger's "Little Girl Blue" probably being the highlight.

Oscar Peterson signed him up soon after this album, probably more for Wakenius' Joe Pass-like electric bebop playing than for the syrup on offer here.