Mats Gustafsson

For the Finnish footballer, see Mats Gustafsson (footballer).

Mats Gustafsson
Mats Gustafsson during a concert in 2010
Background information
Born	29 October 1964 (1964-10-29) (age 47)
Origin	Sweden
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Saxophonist
Instruments	Saxophone, Fluteophone

Mats Olof Gustafsson (born on 29 October 1964 in Umeå, Sweden) is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising.

He first came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986) and the band Gush (started in 1988). He has later played widely with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Paul Lovens, Barry Guy, Yoshimi P-We, Derek Bailey, Magnus Broo, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O'Rourke, Thomas Lehn, Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg, Zu, The Ex and Sonic Youth.

Since the early 1990s Gustafsson has been a regular visitor to the United States, forming a particular affinity with Chicago musicians such as Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang and Ken Vandermark and recording for the city's OkkaDisk label.

In addition to projects with musicians, Gustafsson has worked extensively with artists from the worlds of dance, theatre, poetry and painting.

Gustafsson was awarded the 2011 Nordic Council Music Prize.^[1]

Gustafsson currently lives in Gärsnäs, Skåne, Sweden and Vienna, Austria.

Selected projects

• The Thing

Mats Gustafsson at Moers Festival, June 2006, Germany

Mats Gustafsson at "Sonore" concert, Lviv, 14 Dec 2008

Major collaborators

• Paal Nilssen-Love
• Ingebrigt Håker Flaten
• Joe McPhee
• Ken Vandermark
• Sonic Youth on Hidros 3 (To Patti Smith) and SYR8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth
• Zu on How To Raise an Ox

Festival curator

Gustafsson curated the Perspectives festivals in Västerås, Sweden in 2004, 2007 and 2009. This festival of musical improvisation is noted for its cross-genre character and creative atmosphere among musicians.^[2] The festival slogan for 2004 was "Fight Global Stupidity", 2007 "Fight Local Stupidity" and for 2009 it became "Fight (y)our stupidity".

Gustafsson was also joint curator of the 2010 Konfrontationen festival in Nickelsdorf, Austria.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Mats Gustafsson wins the Nordic Council Music Prize 2011". 2011-06-01. http://www.musikpris.org/Default.aspx?ID=44&Action=1&NewsId=39&PID=60. 
2. ^ http://www.nyaperspektiv.se/NEW/perspectives2004.html
3. ^ http://www.konfrontationen.at/ko10/

Bibliography

• T. Millroth: “Aaly Trio,” Orkester journalen, lvi/4 (1988), 11 .
• M. Chaloin: “Mats Gustafsson,” Improjazz, no.19 (1995), 6.
• W. Montgomery: “Mats Gustafsson: Flow Motion,” Wire, no.164 (1997), 18.
• J. Hale: “Mats Gustafsson,” Coda, no.288 (1999), 17.

External links

• http://www.mic.stim.se/engelsk/11/facts/gustafssonm.html (1999) (unavailable?)
• http://www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/mgustafs.html (1999) [incl. discography].
• J. Guthartz: discography and index of compositions (2000).
• http://www.matsgus.com/ The official Mats Gustafsson web page

Persondata
Name	Gustafsson, Mats
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 October 1964
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death