DR BIG BAND & STEFAN PASBORG "The Rite Suite" + Fredrik Lundin, Goran Kajfeš & Ståle Storløkken

DR BIG BAND & STEFAN PASBORG
feat. Fredrik Lundin, Goran Kajfeš & Ståle Storløkken.
Original music by Igor Stravinsky.
Interpreted by Stefan Pasborg.
Conducted by Miho Hazama.
DR Koncerthuset, Studie 2, Feb. 24th 2023
Danish drummer/composer Stefan Pasborg grew up in a household of ballet dancers, allowing him to have an intimate relationship with their lifestyle and performances. One of his first formative musical experiences was witnessing a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s legendary ballet, The Rite of Spring, by The Danish Royal Ballet.
The experience embedded a love for Stravinsky’s work that was manifested in Pasborg’s album, "RITUAL DANCES", released on Sunnyside Records, USA in 2022.
In Feb. 2023 this beautiful collaboration between the great Danish Radio Big Band and Stefan Pasborg took place, and this video shows a few clips from the second part of the show: "The Rite Suite".
Pasborgs own words about this project:
”One of my earliest musical memories is from 1978, when The Royal Danish Ballet performed Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (choreographed by Glen Tetley) in Copenhagen. My mother was a dancer in the production, and I still remember getting goosebumps the first time I heard the movement known as Dances of the Young Girls. A few years later, I would experience The Firebird and Petrushka, as well.
Being introduced to Stravinsky’s work at such a young age allowed me to quickly appreciate and familiarize myself with this icomic composer’s singular talent, and his contributions remain some of the greatest and most influential in my musical development.
Although I’m a drummer with my roots in jazz and improvisation, I've dreamt of somehow being a part of Stravinsky’s musical world ever since those early, powerful experiences. This project is a vehicle that allows me to merge my love for his work with my own approach (one which is mainly focused on groove and improvisation). Naturally with the deepest love respect for the original!
I had so many unique and amazing experiences in the theatre as a child, especially behind the stage. I have vivid memories of actors and opera singers and ballet dancers in their costumes, walking up and down the narrow halls of the theatre, some already in character and rehearsing in states of deep concentration. And then there were the musicians, with their fascinating and stunningly beautiful instruments. The theatre was a marvelous, enchanting place, and the memories of those experiences continue to inspire me to this day.
This project is a THANK YOU to my mother, to The Royal Danish Ballet, and to The Royal Danish Theatre - for a childhood filled with magical moments.
And thanks, of course (!), to Igor Stravinsky - for his music, which continues to offer endless inspiration and motivation to me and so many others"
Link to the 1st part of this show here: • Video
www.pasborg.dk/