Bees In The Bonnet

Coming four years after the previous trio album Ding Dong. You’re Dead, this marks the longest period ever between Hedvig Mollestad Trio releases. That, however, is no indication she’s been idle — quite the contrary, actually. Over the past few years, Hedvig has completed five commissioned works, two of which resulted in albums released under her own name. In 2023, she debuted with the power-impro-trio Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns, featuring Ståle Storløkken on keyboards and Ole Mofjell on drums. The same year, she was Artist in Residence at the Moldejazz festival, where she made vital guest appearances alongside notable musicians such as Nels Cline, Trevor Dunn, and Colin Stetson. Hedvig also found time to compose new music for a screening of the silent film Limité (Brazil, 1931). After these busy years, Hedvig felt a strong urge to return to her core project — the trio that started it all back in 2011 with the powerful debut album Shoot!. She began working on new music before last summer and later in the year collaborated with bassist Ellen to collect loose ends and piece everything together. Drummer Ivar then joined the process to complete the lineup. Excitement ran high going into the studio. With much of the new material being quite complex, featuring many small variations and extended structures, the sessions demanded intense focus and concentration. Hedvig stresses that the trio’s main goal is always to have fun, whether in the studio or on stage, and to share that joy with their listeners. Listening to Bees In The Bonnet, it’s clear how much the trio had been missing making new music together — with glowing evidence of their skills both as writers and performers. For years, a young Mollestad was obsessed with music and little else. The daughter of a jazz musician, she immersed herself in her father’s record collection, studying classic works by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, and Jim Hall before discovering riff-heavy icons like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in her early 20s. This diverse musical upbringing eventually led to the formation of the Hedvig Mollestad Trio after she received the “Jazz Talent Of The Year” award at Moldejazz in 2009. Their relentless recording and touring schedule — hundreds of concerts worldwide — has earned the guitarist numerous accolades, including two Norwegian Grammies and recognition from DownBeat magazine, which named her one of the 25 artists who “could shape jazz for decades” in 2020.