Ars Nova Workshop
presents
Chris Pitsiokos Unit
Chris Pitsiokos, alto saxophone and electronics
Sam Lisabeth, electric guitar
Henry Fraser, electric bass

Please join us for a brain-rattling evening of extreme jazz with the Brooklyn-based Chris Pitsiokos Unit.
 
The bracing music of saxophonist and composer Chris Pitsiokos combines the lyricism of jazz and the go-for-broke intensity of extreme rock forms and noise with the attention to detail and abstraction of contemporary classical music. His audacious quartet steamrolls over the borderlines between prog complexity, punk attitude, and jazz virtuosity with breakneck intensity.
 
"Ecstatic, complex, punk-infused extreme-jazz… [Pitsiokos’ music features] traces of John Zorn’s full-scale eclecticism, Peter Brötzmann’s gale-force heft, the nihilistic noise of Lydia Lunch, and The Flying Luttenbachers’ ‘brutal prog.’ It’s no wonder the 20-something-year-old Pitsiokos has helped spearhead the nascent movement of fellow outliers shaping Brooklyn’s jazz underground." -Bandcamp Daily
 
Pitsiokos has been praised by Rolling Stone for his “startlingly original vision” and “astonishingly fleet sax work.” The saxophonist has worked with such forward-looking luminaries as Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Joe Morris, Philip White, Otomo Yoshihide, C Spencer Yeh, Nate Wooley, Brandon Seabrook, Lydia Lunch, Paul Lytton, Miya Masaoka, Mick Barr, Susana Santos Silva, and many more. He was a contributor to Arcana VIII, a book of essays edited by John Zorn, and was a resident at Zorn’s club the Stone in November 2016. In addition to performing and composing music, Pitsiokos was a longtime DJ at radio station WKCR-FM and has been producing concerts in Brooklyn and Manhattan for five years.

Admission is FREE