1962: Wolle Aretz was born on the 7th of August in Germany. He started playing drums in highschool-bands in Duesseldorf at the age of 15 years. His most important teachers in the beginning were Ronnie Gardiner, Northamerican Jazz-drummer, who played with Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, etc.;
and Frank Sanden, German drummer, who was working in experimental Jazz Projects all over the world.

1985: His career as professional musician started 1985 in the Canary Islands, playing with the Uruguayan Jazz- and Latin- pianist Alberto Dogliotti in different formations as drummer and percussionist, mainly in the Jazz Club "Misty" in Gran Canaria.

1986 He is taking part of the Sextett of the famous Northamerican Bebop- trumpet player Jon Eardley, recording for the german television for example.

1987: Tour as percussionist of the Salsa-Band "La Sonora Tronera" together with the cuban Salsa-Jazz Band around Chucho Valdéz "Irakere".

1989: He gave many concerts with the Swedish pianist and trombone-player Ulf Johansson, working with famous Skandinavian musicians like the clarinet player Ove Linn and the singer Claus Janson for example.
He has settled down in Gran Canaria after buying a "Finca" in the mountains of that beautiful island and got married.

1990: He is playing with the Canarian guitar-player José Carlos Díaz at the "International Jazz Festival of
Las Palmas" and the "Jazz Festival of Mogan".
He works with the band of the Brasilian singer Solange Pereira "Pau Brasil",
with the pianist Luis Vecchio from Argentina,
with the Reggae-Band of Al Benjamin from Guadaloupe
and gives drum cliniques at "El Aula del Jazz IDEM".

1991: He starts playing with the Canadian Blues-Rock guitar player and singer Dave O'Connor, forming
"La Iguana Blues Band", giving concerts all over the archipelago for the next three years and touring on
the spanish mainland.
He is forming a band with the Northamerican Soul singer and bass player Ray Cooksey.

1992: With the Fusion Jazz Band "Da Capo" he is playing at the "Jazz Festival Circulo Mecantíl", plays
Afro-Cuban Music with "Batarumba" and goes on performing Brasilian Music with "Pau Brasil".

1993: The Cuban pianist Javier "Caramelo" Mussó calls him to play at the "International Jazz Festival of
Las Palmas" with his "Cubana Jazz" and counts on him to perform in several projects during his stay in the Canary Islands.
Together with the Northamerican flute player Marti Walker, Wolle Aretz brings to life the Marti Walker Quartett with Carlos Mompeó on bass and pianists like Mingo Roque and Wolfgang Hefter.

1994: With Marti Walker he plays at the "Jazz-Festival Mogan '94" with "Infusion Jazz Band" and he has a theater job in Alethea's "Ave Eva".
Wolle Aretz takes part in the creation of "Funk Philharmonics", band around the Northamerican trumpet player Stan Serafin (Jazz, Soul).

1995: A year with Studio jobs, drum lessons and concerts with groups like the
Roman Queck Sextett or the band of Larry Jean Luis, guitar player from Venezuela,
and the participation in the "International Jazz Festival of Las Palmas" with the local band "Polillas".

1996: Wolle Aretz starts playing with a famous local Folk-Pop-Latin band called "Mestisay", traveling a lot during this year to different cities like Alicante and Madrid, where the band recorded a hole concert in the "Teatro Monumental" for the Spanish television (TVE). They take part of the WOMAD, Mega Music Festival created by Peter Gabriel.
He works again with the german Bebop pianist Wolgang Hefter and plays with the band of the saxophone player Andreas Prittwitz.

1997: With "Mestisay" he plays in Madrid and Barcelona,
takes part of the "Pirineo Sur Festival" in Sallent de Gállego,
the "Festival Internacional de Guitarra" in Cordoba
and the "Sonidos del Mundo Festival" in Navarra.
With" José Carlos Díaz Electric Jazz" he works in the "Festival Internacional de Canarias Jazz '97",
touring with Eric Marienthal's band.

1998: Wolle Aretz represents the Canary Islands at the "Fitur"- event in Madrid, playing with
José Antonio Ramos (Timple),
Aristides Moreno
Andreas Prittwitz (saxophone).
With "Mestisay" he's travelling and playing in
Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Montevideo,Uruguay;
La Havanna, Cuba;
Tindouf, Algeria (Sahara-Desert);
Berlin and Wiebaden, Germany;
Vigo and Bilbao, Spain.

1999: He is giving a concert with the spanish singer "Victor Manuel" and the cuban singer "Alvita Rodríguez" in Las Palmas.
He takes part of the international "Heineken Jazz Festival" with the
"Alberto Dogliotti Trio", playing Bebop and Latin-Jazz.
He plays with"Artenara", a well known canarian New Age-Folk Group.
He's participating in the event "Timples 2000" in the "Auditorium AlfredoKraus" in Las Palmas.

2000: The Spanish guitar player Javier Infante invites him to play at the
"10th Canary Islands International Guitar Festival" as percussionist
(playing mostly exotic instruments like IndianTabla and Udu).
Wolle Aretz plays with a simialar percussion setup at the Festival "Canarias Jazz & Mas Heineken 2000" with the group of Carlos Sanchez, guitar
with Kike Perdomo, tenor sax
J.C. Machado, bass
J.P. Perez, percussion
For the Spanish Television he plays with José Manuel Soto.
With "La Iguana Blues Band" he takes part of the "Bluesfestival Las Palmas".

2001: With "La Iguana Blues Band" he tours threw out the summer with the event "Cabildo En Ruta", organized by the "Cabildo of Gran Canaria".
With the same band he is giving concerts at the "1st Biker Week" in Gran Canaria and a
"Harley Davidson Meeting" in Fuerteventura.

2002: He is working with a Jazz Band in the Theatre Piece "Tengamos el sexo en paz"
and starts working as teacher for Modern Drum Set and Percussion at the music school "Escuela Municipal de San Bartolomé de Tirajana", where he actually goes on teaching.

2003: With a stipendium from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria for the formation of official music teachers he studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,USA, where he receives lessons from the worlds best teachers.
He takes part of the project "Rock'n'Roll en la Caja", organized by the Caja de Canarias.

Wolle Aretz's musical formation: He received privat lessons from drummers like Ronnie Gadiner, Frank Sanden, Peter Luebke and David Sanchez and participated in seminars held by Dave Weckl, Robbie Ameen, Richie Flores, etc.
At the Berklee College of Music he studied with Jamey Haddad, Horacio Hernandez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Glen VelÈz, Trichy Sankaran, Jun Saito and Mike Rinquist.

From 1993 on he is developing his own teaching method.

.......

His deep interest in eastern and western religions and philosophies had leaded him to practice Yoga and Meditation since 1980.
Since 2000 he is giving Reiki and Meditation Seminars regulary.


Albums/Cd's:

La Iguana Blues Band "La Iguana" 1993
Savia "Savia" 1995
Sixto Armas "In sixto" 1997
Anticraisis Consort "Desprendimiento de rutina" 1999
Sixto Armas "En Directo" 1999
La Iguana Blues Band "Fool for your lovin'" 2000
Javier Infante Trio "Eclectic World Music" 2000
Alberto Dogliotti Trio "How's the time" 2000
José Carlos Díaz "Sheehans" 2001
La Iguana Blues Band "directo" 2001
José Carlos Díaz "Alisios" 2001
La Iguana Blues Band "Eversince"2001
Udidge "Cave Session" 2004
Surya Namaskar "Coloured Sounds" 2007