Na Ja (Black Cross Solo Sessions 5)

by Mats Gustafsson

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1.	Box 1 part 1 bass sax 05:41	buy track
2.	Box 1 part 2 bass sax 05:30	buy track
3.	Box 1 part 3 sopranino and soprano sax, 4 sax mouthpieces 03:24	buy track
4.	Box 1 part 4 baritone sax 08:04	buy track
5.	Box 1 part 5 baritone sax 05:22	buy track
6.	Alto sax nr 3 alto sax 04:48	buy track
7.	Box 2 part 1 baritone sax 00:35	buy track
8.	Box 2 part 2 soprano, alto, baritone and bass sax 09:58	buy track
9.	Box 2 part 3 bass sax 06:01	buy track
10.	Box 2 part 4 baritone sax 03:54	buy track

about

Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson might have a separate discography for his solo records. He's investigated the possibilities of
unaccompanied reed music from almost every angle. Presented with the opportunity to make a new solo record under the isolation of
the pandemic, Gustafsson returned to a project he'd conceptualized but never realized: the playing-card pieces of Peter Brötzmann.
Although these Fluxus-like prompts are better known through the two card sets the German saxophonist created in the 1990s, which
resulted in two CDs with his Chicago Tentet, Images and Signs (both released on Okka Disk), Brötzmann had in fact been using cards
since the 1970s. Recording in his home studio in Nickelsdorf, Austria, Gustafsson used two of these sets of compositional prompts, one
designed for the ICP Tentet and another intended as a spur for Brötzmann's own solo work. The instrumentation on Naja includes the
entire saxophone family from sopranino to bass, as well as a piece for mouthpieces; this is also a rare opportunity to hear Gustafsson
play more than one horn at the same time, a Roland Kirk move that he'd long ago sworn off but was prompted to do by the cards. In
addition to nine pieces using the cards, Gustafsson played one non-card composition from Brötzmann's solo FMP LP 14 Love Poems.
Stunningly mixed and mastered by Martin Siewert, with liner notes by Gustafsson, photos of the card boxes and the first photograph of
Gustafsson and Brötzmann. Cover art, as on all Black Cross Solo Sessions CDs, by Christopher Wool

credits

released November 18, 2022

Mats Gustafsson – sopranino, soprano, alto, baritone, and bass saxophones; saxophone
mouthpieces
Track 6 by Peter Brötzmann (FMP – publishing/GEMA); tracks 1-5 and 7-10 by Mats
Gustafsson (STIM/NcB).
Recorded Dec 14-16, 2020, by Olof Madsen at Discaholic Studios, Nickelsdorf. Mixed and
mastered December 17 and 18, 2020, by Martin Siewert, Vienna. Cover design and artwork
by Christopher Wool. CD design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett and
Christopher Wool.
Thanx to Connor Bennett for creating a masterful alto sax mouthpiece. Special thanx to
Peter Brötzmann. Special thanx to Christopher Wool.