Musicians' Corner's interview with Georg Wadenius


Georg 'Jojje' Wadenius
An article with Georg Wadenius



   I am not working that much in 2017. I worked far too much last year and it started to take its tow on my health, so this year I’m playing some material for children and doing a tour in the fall with The Cleo Band, my band with Lars Danielsson, Per Lindvall and Jesper Nordenström.



Cleo live


Blood Sweat & Tears live



   I wound up in Blood Sweat & Tears – and in New York – because I ran into a friend, the guitarist Stefan Grossman, who is a childhood friend of three or four of the guys in the band. They had had a band meeting where they decided that they needed a guitarist who could play rock and jazz, and Stefan had said to them that he knew who they needed. So I got a call from them and went over to play with them between Christmas and new-years in 1971. And it went well, so I returned home to Sweden to get my things together, after which I made the move to the US.


   I had so much work in the US. For a studio musician the job is often to be able to fit into a lot. Being a session musician there I was part of so many things that made it out to the general public, and so many things that didn’t, because it didn’t work out on the business end for example.



A mere few examples of the many album productions that Jojje Wadenius has contributed to



    I worked a great deal with Luther Vandross, and he was a lot of fun to work with and an agreeable person. We had been working with Roberta Flack prior to that. It was me on guitar, Marcus Miller on bass, Buddy Williams on drums, and Luther doing backgrounds. So when he initially recorded a couple of tracks, he brought us for that. After that I kept working with him a lot but I really only toured with him in New York. Things were going well for me, and not in the least financially. If you left New York for six months to do a tour you had to almost start over as a session musician, because there were always new people coming in. I also had young children, and wouldn’t have enjoyed being away for months.



Classic Luther Vandross "Never Too Much"


   It’s hard to say what makes a great artist. Most artists who make it have talent at the core, but you can hardly say that all of them are nice people. I think that one thing the greats have in common is that they don’t release something before it is as good as it can be. They wouldn’t stand for something that is seventy percent of what they want. And a lot of them have AD/HD too.


   These days I find it’s difficult to keep up with what’s going on. I have heard such a lot of music and  often I quickly get tired of the music that is popular now. We do have some great acts in Norway though, where I am based these days.


As for the future I just hope to be able to continue, and to be continually inspired.


Made In Sweden with Jojje Wadenius

Georg Wadenius and Cleo


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