Travel award reports
Jazz and coffee in Oslo by Michael Dunlop
The reason for my trip to Oslo was a 30-minute audition at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In the final year of my undergraduate jazz course, I had applied to do a postgraduate course in Oslo, but I wouldn’t hear if I had an audition, or when it would be, until a couple of weeks beforehand. Of course I didn’t want to run the risk of missing it, so I decided it was best to go for the whole week, brought two friends from my course along with me to play, and ended up having an enjoyable holiday. Not everything went quite to plan, with bailiffs turning up at my flat (not looking for me or my flatmates I should add) just before I had to leave, train delays and extra charges at the British end, and a just-missed coach resulting in a 90-minute wait at the Norwegian end. (I probably spent too much time buying chocolate, which with hindsight was still absolutely worth it.) Still, we made it in one piece, and things could only get better! Within a few days we had a favourite coffee spot along the river and always made sure to pass the nearby waterfall on the way into town. Having come to Oslo from London, this proximity to nature was a breath of fresh air—as was the friendliness of the people. While the locals initially seemed quiet, they were always happy to recommend places to visit and would often end up being quite chatty.
The author enjoying the spray of the Aker River Photo: Dave Adsett
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Now to the real reason for my trip— the music. I am really interested in the Nordic jazz scene and had never found anything quite like it in London, but from my first evening in Oslo I went to concerts almost every night, whether or not my friends were coming, and there was always plenty to choose from. Unfortunately my audition didn’t go to plan, but that wouldn’t stop me from making the most of the music scene while I could. Some highlights were an entire concert of solo double bass (courtesy of Sigurd Hole), and my encounter with a new instrument—the Hardanger fiddle (like a violin but with additional ‘sympathetic’ strings that make the sound brighter). But it wasn’t these novelties that had got my ears’ attention, it was rather the strength of the folk tradition and what seemed to be a lack of stylistic
