Dawda Jobarteh / Stefan Pasborg – duo

Release date: 15-04-2016
Format: CD

This is a meeting between two gentlemen from two different music cultures, and from two different continents. Together they create a melting-pot of styles mixed together into an output based on their mutual love for strong rhythmical shapes, beautiful melodies and the pure energy in music. Each of them brings compositions from their past and present, and the result is this powerful and unique release!

STEFAN PASBORG (Denmark) One of the most personal and versatile young European drummers / bandleaders – from groove to abstract! Three time Danish Music Awards-winner Stefan Pasborg is a highly energetic drummer from the melting pot of Copenhagen, and after getting a snare drum, a cymbal and a high-hat at the age of three from renowned jazz drummer Alex Riel, he has developed into a very personal musician on the European jazz scene... And has toured the most of Europe and in USA, Canada, Africa and Asia - in more than 30 countries, on 5 continents, from Shanghai to Vancouver, from Monte-Carlo to Moscow, from Varanger to Casablanca, and from New York to São Paulo - both as a leader and as a sideman. ... Pasborg has won prices like f.ex. the Soloist-prize at ʻ16th European Jazz Contestʼ in Germany, the 1st Prize at ʻ5th European Tournament of Improvised Musicʼ in France, ʻJazznytprisenʼ in Denmark...

DAWDA JOBARTEH (Gambia): Dawda Jobarteh was born in the Gambia in 1976 in a griot family. He started playing the drums at age seven and from age 12 he started to go and play concerts with his uncle Malamin Jobarteh and his cousins Pa Bobo Jobarteh and Tata Dindin Jobarteh’s Salaam Band. Around this time he also started to teach tourists playing the drums. In 1996 Dawda was on his first tour outside West Africa in France and Germany, and in 1997 he was on a big tour arranged by WOMAD. In 1999 Dawda moved to Denmark where he is still living. In Denmark Dawda took up his family instrument, the kora and little by little made it his main instrument. Today Dawda is mainly a kora player and composer inspired by both traditional and modern West African music as well as influences from all over the world. In 2011 Dawda released his debutalbum Northern Light Gambian Night which was evaluated as one of the best albums of the year by Songlines. In 2012 the album was nominated as best album at Danish Music Awards World.

Review snippets:

DUO was included among Best of 2016 - "Honorable Mentions" at The New York City Jazz Record.

For two consecutive months of the summer 2016, Pasborg/Jobarteh "DUO" appeared on the list of 'Recommended new releases' from all over the world in the finest American magazine "New York City Jazz Record".

''Ikke siden Jimi Hendrix og Sonny Sharrock har jeg hørt noget lignende! Der er ikke noget at rafle om. Disse to herrer fra henholdsvis Gambia og Danmark rammer en åre fyldt med power...en veldisponeret suite med en fantastisk dialog mellem de to 'soul brothers'. Det anbefales at skrue pænt højt op for volumen ved første gennemlytning, der næppe bliver den sidste’’
- Jazz Special, DK

''Dawda Jobarteh and Stefan Pasborg's Duo is unique on more than one level...Duo is an album that is beyond genre and at times quite far-reaching. The emotionally and electrically charged cover pieces are aggressive, shifting and challenging as they deconstruct sound and create an organic alternative to conventional expectations. The more customary pieces still manage to merge African tradition, world-beat percussion and unusual instrumentation to produce a fundamentally innovative and expressively stimulating sound’’
- All About Jazz, USA.

***** ''Charles Mingus' “Better Get Hit in Your Soul” or Don Cherry's “Mopti” never sounded so much charged with infectious-intense, driving dance rhythm. Jobarteh sound on both pieces as a proficient guitarist coming from the school of Sonny Sharrock, adding to the kora distortion and fuzzy effects, while Pasborg plays with his usual powerful manner and the two sound as a single massive group’’ - The Free Jazz Collective, USA

**** ''Det er en karismatisk duo, der med albummet DUO har slået pjalterne sammen...Begge betvinger deres instrumenter som mestre, og begge mestrer deres foretrukne genrer...Alene derfor er der tale om et usædvanlig interessant samspil. For mødet mellem de to kapaciteter – og mødet mellem deres respektive genrer – baner helt nye stier i musikkens verden...DUO er i enhver forstand forrygende og fascinerende’’ - Gaffa, DK

''Jobartehs trommebaggrund og Pasborgs helt-oppe-på-beatet trommespil giver en rytmisk medrivende plade. Jobarteh tilsætter koraen flere effekter, så den både forvrænger og til tider lyder mere hen ad en elektrisk guitar. Pladen er aldrig stillestående og tager lytterne med ud over stepperne’’ - Jazz Nyt, DK

****** ''If you are experiencing now or read on the cover that the duo of two exclusively of percussion and kora (West African harp bridge) is, you are probably deterred - be - or at least a little disinterested. But that would be very unfortunate, because the music has to offer this exciting CD, you will be able to introduce barely adequate’’ - Nordische Klang, Germany