Björn Wennås'
Swedish composer and guitarist Björn Wennås is an active musician in Boston and it’s surroundings. He currently leads his own quintet featuring his original compositions drawing inspiration from both rock and jazz tradition as well as from contemporary music.
Björn made his debut on stage at the age of 12 with the Flamenco group Los Dos Jovenes led by acclaimed guitarist and educator Miroslav Simic. Björn eventually developed an interest in jazz and went on to play guitar in several big bands and smaller ensembles. Most notably performing with big bands under the direction of Johnny Olsson at Berns and Mosebacke in Stockholm. Björn has performed in some of the most distinguished jazz clubs in Sweden such as Fashing in Stockholm and Katalin in Uppsala.
Björn received a Bachelor's Degree from Uppsala University in Musicology and Anthropology, writing his final paper discussing jazz improvisation from an anthropological perspective. In 1999 he moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. While at Berklee, Björn studied with Mick Goodrick, Hal Crook, Jon Damian, Ed Tomassi, Dave Santoro, Greg Hopkins and Tim Miller. He was nominated in 2004 for the Just Plain Folk’s Award for best jazz vocal composition (Love Song) along with the likes of Judi Silvano. His quintet was also selected to perform at the first annual New Music Festival in Boston, celebrating composers that are pushing the edge. Most recently he was a finalist in the International Massimo Urbani Award 2005, a jazz soloist competition that takes place in Camerino, Italy.
Björn has played in venues such as Berklee Performance Center, The Zeitgeist Gallery, House of Blues, Ryles Jazz Club in Boston and The Bitter End and The Triad in New York City.
Björn has performed and collaborated with several notable musicians including Bruno Råberg, Phil Grenadier (Kenny Baron, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Larry Goldings) Mark Shilansky (Luciana Souza, Kenny Wheeler, Clark Terry) Mads Tolling (Turtle Island String Quartet, Stanley Clarke) and Vadim Neselovskyi (Gary Burton).
Currently involved in several different projects he recently introduced his new band on his latest CD Static.
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