BeatHouse Music - Warren Wiegratz

Proficient on eight instruments and known for his expertise on saxophone, flute, and keyboards, Warren has received the prestigious Wisconsin Area Music Industry award (WAMI) for Best Reed/Brass Instrumentalist an unprecedented eleven times. He is a much sought-after saxophone and jazz clinician, performing and instructing in high schools and colleges throughout the Midwest. He has been featured in articles in the Saxophone Journal, The Leblanc Bell, and the Roland Users Group magazines.

Warren has performed and recorded with numerous national and international artists, among them: Phil Collins, George Duke, Al Dimeola, Lenny White, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Supremes, Steve Smith, Jaco Pastorius, Wayman Tisdale, Andy Kim, Lyle Mays, William Elwood, Spencer Brewer, Chris Spheeris, Michael Jones, and Sigmund Snopek.

Currently Warren is the leader of the group Streetlife, winners of several WAMI awards in the Best Adult Contemporary Band and Best Contemporary Jazz Group categories. Streetlife has released two CDs that have received airplay on contemporary jazz radio stations across the United States. The house band for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, Streetlife performs each season for live national television and radio audiences of millions. Warren's solo version of The Star Spangled Banner has been widely praised by the national media.

As a founding member of the internationally-acclaimed jazz/fusion group Sweetbottom, Warren recorded four highly-successful albums, two of which were released on the Elektra/Asylum label, Angels of the Deep and Turn Me Loose. While with Sweetbottom, he composed, arranged, and performed two works, A Gift So Rare and Ponteo, with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra that received rave reviews from the Milwaukee Journal newspaper.

Warren later formed the popular contemporary jazz group Oceans, recording two nationally-released albums, Second Chance (Pro-Jazz) and Ridin' the Tide (Pro-Jazz), which reached number four on the Billboard jazz charts. Oceans made national television appearances on NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, ESPN's Special Report, and CBS Sports, and performed at major jazz festivals across the United States.

Aside from performing and recording extensively, Warren has authored numerous compositions. His song Felicia is featured on the soundtrack to the major motion picture I Love You to Death, a Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures release. He collaborated with Jim Reith to score the television movie Dreamweaver and the motion picture Lady Mary. And Warren was commissioned to write and perform an original work for saxophone and orchestra with the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Three Scenes for Contemporary Jazz Saxophone and Orchestra, which received very favorable reviews on its premiere.

Warren can be reached at:
warren.wiegratz@beathousemusic.com