Interview with jazz trombonist Andrej Ugoljew. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off? When did you realize that this was a passion you could make a living out of?

Andrej Ugoljew: – I was born in Berlin and grew up in Berlin and Moscow. My Mum is German, my Dad is Russian/Ukrainian and we went to Moscow when I was 5 years old. There our grandma made the family buy a piano and my sister and me started getting classes. Because of getting seriously into competitive swimming I stopped playing the piano being 9 years old, but started playing the trombone when we moved back to Berlin in 1999. In Moscow we attended a lot of great jazz concerts.

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We went to Ray Charles, Joe Zawinul and the Moscow Art Trio. My Dad played the drums in a Jazzband himself and we listened to Jazz a lot in our flat and car. In the age of 15 I joined my first Funk and Hip Hop Band in Berlin. All the band members were talented guys in their 20s. That’s when it got me. Grooving with my big brothers, improvising and Jamming. I loved it and started practicing a lot, got member of some good Jazzbands and Big Bands and decided to study Jazz trombone, discovered Roy Hargrove, went to concerts of The Roots and Erykah Badu. Music got me.

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

AU: – Our own Sound is something very interesting. We feel when we got it and not playing with our own sound feels weird and I can not really play then. There is only one solution : Practice and achieve the point where you feel „that’s it“ every day. Getting the feeling of „That’s it“ into our system on a regular base. For me it’s all about consistency and routines. Letting the horn sound perfect in every range, every day. Practicing simple stuff, always getting to the point of sounding really good. Taking it easy. It’s a matter of joy, discipline, routine and simplicity. Another point is not to focus on myself and „my“ sound while playing. When playing in a group I wanna make my surrounding sound good. We develop our sound by ourself while practicing alone, but in the same way it’s a creation of the scene, the school and the bands we are part of. If we wanna groove, we need to log in together. If this happens my own sound is getting big naturally too.

JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

AU: – The Blues – Johann Sebastian Bach – playing with good musicians.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

AU: – I got better because I practiced and played a lot and my surrounding did the same.

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JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

AU: – I wanna quote a former teacher of mine Jacob Anderkov – „music is always everything“ – it’s soul, intellect, body and everything we can’t express in words. To choose a word to describe the most relevant part in music would mean to simplify it in a wrong way. Language can not express music.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

AU: – I love connecting with the vibe of a nice audience. If it clicks or not is not my responsibility. Sometimes you fall in love with each other, sometimes you don’t. C’est la vie.

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

AU: – Create some hotness – if you do it with a standard or anything else – who cares? – It needs to feel good – for you, for grandpa and your niece – really good music works for different generations

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

AU: – Give access to musical education to everyone, no matter from what financial background the person comes from.

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

AU: – Philip Glass String Quartets, Roy Hargrove, A tribe Called Quest, Glenn Gould, Steve Turre …

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?

AU: – Meeting my dad – unfortunately he passed away when I was 14 years old – we would go for a swim and into sauna in a Moscow without Putin, but a democratic time zone in Russia. So that’s a combination of past and future I guess.

JBN: – So far, it’s been me asking you questions, now may I have a question from yourself…

AU: – Why do you love Jazz?

JBN: – To understand this, follow the articles on my website, our jazz festivals, if you will be in any European country during those days, come listen, learn, find out what the new excellence of Jazz is ․․․ Those are the beginning steps of jazz, you don’t play jazz yet!

Interview by Simon Sarg

Note: https://jazzbluesnews.com/2023/03/19/useu-jazz-blues-association-festivals/ You can express your consent and join our association, which will give you the opportunity to perform at our Jazz and Blues festivals, naturally receiving an appropriate royalty. We cover all expenses. The objectives of the interview are: How to introduce yourself, your activities, thoughts and intellect, and make new discoveries for our US/EU Jazz & Blues Association, which organizes festivals, concerts and meetings in Boston and various European countries, why not for you too!! You can read more about the association here. https://jazzbluesnews.com/2022/11/19/useujba/