Home » Jazz Musicians » Chris Pitsiokos

Chris Pitsiokos

Chris Pitsiokos (b. 1990) is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer and improviser. His compositions often provide a framework for performers to express a singular aesthetic vision without subjugating their voices as creative elements in their own right. In this way his work contrasts with traditional modes of composition in which the composer or band leader is the sole, or primary arbiter of a unified, preconceived vision.

Chris has been praised by Rolling Stone for his "startlingly original vision" and "astonishingly fleet sax work." Downbeat has identified his band CP Unit as "a persuasive combination of harmolodic jazz and contemporary noise rock." As a soloist he has developed a unique voice on the alto saxophone: his expansion of the instrument's vocabulary has served to multiply its emotive and formal capabilities.

As a bandleader and soloist he has toured throughout the US, Japan and Europe. In 2016 he was a resident at John Zorn's club the Stone and contributed to Arcana, a series of books edited by Zorn. In 2017 he had a solo concert at ISSUE Project Room in New York, toured Europe with CP Unit for the first time, and toured Japan as a soloist and performed with luminaries Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Tatsuya Yoshida, Makigami Koichi, and Jojo Hiroshige (Hijokaidan). 2018 was marked by a busy festival touring schedule, including (but not limited to) two European tours with CP Unit and a duo tour with Otomo Yoshihide. He has also worked with Nate Wooley, Paul Lytton, Peter Evans, Weasel Walter, Jaimie Branch, and Tyshawn Sorey. In Spring 2019 he will tour South America for the first time.

Pitsiokos serves on the editorial board of, and writes for, Sound American.

Tags

5
Album Review

Chris Pitsiokos: Art Of The Alto

Read "Art Of The Alto" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Chris Pitsiokos contains multitudes. His sounds do, and from that one can extrapolate, he as an artist also. He can be found in multiple settings from chamber music to rock and noise. His music touches on improvisation, free jazz, and fusion. Pitsiokos leads several ensembles from his CP Unit to the trio Protean Reality with Susana Santos Silva and Torbjörn Zetterberg, Carny Cant with Jason Nazary and Rick Eye, and Bi Ba Doom with Luke Stewart and Jason Nazary. Then ...

4
Album Review

Child Of Illusion: Khimaira

Read "Khimaira" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Nowadays, billionaires pay inordinate sums of money to leave Earth's atmosphere aboard rockets, just to float in space. The more modest of us can get the same effect listening to Khimaira by the trio Child Of Illusion. Recorded live in Stockholm, in 2018, this release follows the trio's initial eponymous offering from Clean Feed Records, released the same year. The trio is alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos from the United States, Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva who lives in Sweden, and ...

2
Festivals Talking

Moers Festival Interviews: Chris Pitsiokos

Read "Moers Festival Interviews: Chris Pitsiokos" reviewed by Martin Longley


Alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos has successfully made a deep impression on the improvising scene of NYC during what amounts to almost the last decade. Still youthful, his raging complexity and conceptual attitude have the backing of a dedication to finding gigs, or even promoting his own events, and of always seeking out unfamiliar players for adventurous encounters. Stylistically, it's virtually impossible to avoid mentioning John Zorn as an attitudinal and tonal precedent. Pitsiokos has already appeared on several ...

7
Album Review

Chris Pitsiokos / Javier Areal Velez / Kevin Murray: First Blush

Read "First Blush" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Was this gig at New York's Downtown Music Gallery in January, 2020, a one-off performance? Saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos was scheduled to perform solo, probably to promote his extraordinary solo release Speak In Tongues (Relative Pitch, 2019), but chose instead to expand to a trio. And a new trio at that. This wasn't one of his recent trios with Max Johnson and Kevin Shea, Noah Punkt and Philipp Scholz, or Daniel Levin and Brandon Seabrook. Nor was it his expansive CP ...

1
Album Review

Chris Pitsiokos: Speak In Tongues And Hope For The Gift Of Interpretation

Read "Speak In Tongues And Hope For The Gift Of Interpretation" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, it might be said, was standing on the shoulders of giants when he recorded this solo alto saxophone concert in January of 2019. Indeed, these six tributes take into account the accomplishments of the esteemed masters and, from their shoulders, Pitsiokos enters some rarefied air. His Speak In Tongues And Hope For The Gift Of Interpretation is his third solo outing. His first two solo efforts, Oblivion / Ecstasy (2015) and Valentine's Day (2017), were released as ...

14
Album Review

Chris Pitsiokos: Silver Bullet in the Autumn of Your Years

Read "Silver Bullet in the Autumn of Your Years" reviewed by Don Phipps


Adventurous, hair-raising, mind-bending, dense, fibrous, layered, hallucinogenic, twisted. These are the words that come to mind when listening to the excellent but challenging music on Chris Pitsiokos's album Silver Bullet in the Autumn of Your Years. Pitsiokos' compositions often sound like a musical transcription of the trippiest parts of William Burrough's “Naked Lunch." The result? An album that feels like it jumped from the mind of John Zorn, Cecil Taylor, and Robert Fripp--all at the same time! One ...

18
Album Review

Chris Pitsiokos, Susana Santos Silva, Torbjörn Zetterberg: Child Of Illusion

Read "Child Of Illusion" reviewed by Don Phipps


Selecting a cover illustration of a dark and menacing four-armed lemur, the trio of musicians on the album Child Of Illusion, Chris Pitsiokos (alto sax), Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), and Torbjörn Zetterberg (double bass), signal that this album will pack an unusual musical wallop. And indeed it does, with top level improvisations that explore dynamics and timbres that, to borrow a phrase, shock and awe. All three offer unique perspectives. Bassist Zetterberg bows like a mosquito, bangs on ...

Read more articles

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Khimaira

Relative Pitch Records
2022

buy

Art Of The Alto

Relative Pitch
2022

buy

Speak In Tongues And...

Relative Pitch Records
2020

buy

First Blush

1039 Records
2020

buy

Child Of Illusion

Clean Feed Records
2018

buy

Silver Bullet in the...

Clean Feed Records
2018

buy

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.