Interview with jazz trumpeter Hildegunn Øiseth. An interview by email in writing.

Dear readers, get to know more about our US/EU Jazz – Blues Festivals and the activities of our US/EU Jazz – Blues Association in the capitals of Europe, we will soon publish program for 2024, enjoy in the July – August – Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, new addreses this year, also in Amsterdam, Budapest.

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. 

Hildegunn Øiset: – I am born in Norway and grew up on a farm close to the Swedish boarder in an area with many settlers from Finland. My ancestors.

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JBN: – How did your sound evolve over time? What did you do to find and develop your sound? 

HØ: – I was playing in a school band/ marching band in my childhood and then I studied classical music. During my studies, I was hanging and jamming with the jazz students and was signing and playing a lot of jazz. When I was graduating I had already won an audition for a fulltime-jobb in Bohuslän Big Band.

I was always very open for different types of music and what I was listening to was mostly artists with a great sound and an approach that was touching me.

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Thats why the sound became my main thing that I worked on, my sound and the ability to control it. I had early developed my own way of using electronic effect-pedals to go more extreme sound-wise.

JBN: – What practice routine or exercise have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical ability especially pertaining to rhythm?

HØ: – I have never been disciplined, and always tried to make the most fun out of practising. To play together with your favourite albums is good for many things. The listening is as importantly as the playing and now you get both . It important to get a great understanding of the rhythmical tension in different styles and traditions.

JBN: – How to prevent disparate influences from colouring what you’re doing?

HØ: – My personality is very often responsible for what I do or dont do and how I sound etc. It is very difficult for me to be disciplined. Thats not good when it comes to practising etc. The way I always solve how to learn new things and to develop is to keep my self busy with playing, for example along with cd’s and creating musical meetings where ever I am, and make sure Im having fun with music and my trumpet. I always need to explore new things. For some musicians its better to stick with one style if you really want to be on a top level.

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JBN: – What’s the balance in music between intellect and soul? 

HØ: – What I like the most while I am playing is loosing my awareness of time and place. When this happens, my intellect is not needed for creating music, right? But I think a good balance is the answer for many things in life, and I believe that music mirrors life.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; you’re okay with giving the people what they want?

HØ: – I do really care for who Im playing, and to make sure we are connected in different ways. At the same time I know that the greatest thing to see, hear and experience in the moment, is a band that love what they are doing. If we have fun, we will all have fun.

JBN: – Please any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?

JBN: – No memories? ha ha ha !!!

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of the standard tunes are half a century old?

HØ: – I meet a lot of young people, so I haven’t been thinking of it as a problem. I have been working on the gender imbalance in the jazzscene and its really nice to se that the diversity is is getting better and better. Thats very good. There are clubs with a traditional jazz style. These clubs attracts mostly more seniors, but thats also nice that jazz is for everybody. Another challenge is perhaps the word. Jazz- its so wide.

After many years of traveling with my horn as companion in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, its not so many venues I remember with traditional jazz, but at the same time; where ever you go you can find some people that can jam a bit on some standards. Thats the charming part of it. The fusion of traditional music and jazz and western music is almost everywhere.

JBN: – John Coltrane said that music was his spirit. How do you understand the spirit and the meaning of life?

HØ: – I dont think I know, but when it comes to music and the meaning of that in my life, thats simpel. I dont know exactly from what age I knew that I would be an artist/musician, but it must have been very early. I guess it was many reasons and events that led to it, but I always felt very happy that I never had to think twice. It was never a second thought. Then its just what you are, no matter how much you might earn or where you have to go with who. Music always comes first and will have to fit into a so-called life when it comes to building a family or not.

JBN: – If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

HØ: – I would like to change the way artists, record companies and the music industry reacted when everything went online.  If we had protected our art and made it easy for our fans to buy the music online immediately , it would have looked different today. Most people dont mind paying for what they want. Now there is no way back.

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JBN: – Who do you find yourself listening to these days?

HØ: – All the live performances online from musicians sitting at home, and of course Im following Chick Corea.

JBN: – I have been asking you so far, now may I have a question from yourself…

HØ: – Could we find a better name than jazz music? What could that be?

JBN: – Silly thought!

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Interview by Simon Sarg