Wakeman started on the clarinet at age 14 and, while at school, played in a band with cousin Rick on piano.

He subsequently worked with Graham Collier (including the albums Songs for My Father and The Day of the Dead), Johnny Dankworth and Mike Westbrook (including playing saxophone and clarinet on the 1975 album Citadel/Room 315 and 1976's Love/Dream and Variations).

With Pete Atkin With Graham Collier With David Essex With Mike Westbrook With others John Chilton (Ed.

),Who's Who of British Jazz (London; New York : Continuum, 2004, 2nd Edition), p. 371 R. Fagge and N. Pillai (Eds.

), New Jazz Conceptions (London: Routledge, 2017), p. 137 Duncan Heining, Mosaics: The Life and Works of Graham Collier (Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2018) Matthew Wright, ‘Annie Whitehead’s Interplay bring Township sounds to Leamington’, JazzWise Magazine, 2 May 2018