This Thursday our monthly series, Riffin’: CapitalBop Listening Sessions at the Atlas, welcomes its first local artist. Anthony Pirog will sit down for an open conversation about his influences, facilitated by CapitalBop and guided by the questions of audience members — like you.

Pirog is among the District’s most distinctive and expansive musical thinkers, and one of its most adaptable. That means you’re liable to see him in a variety of contexts, be it free jazz or rock or straight-ahead. (Maybe you’ve heard him with his well-loved Janel & Anthony project.) He’s recently recorded an A-plus album with two fabulous accompanists: Michael Formanek on bass and Ches Smith on drums. The record isn’t out yet, but the trio will be at the Atlas Performing Arts Center this Thursday to perform. It’s their first public show. (Our Riffin’ session is at 7 p.m., and the concert is at 8.)

Listening to the trio’s recording is a bewilderingly comforting experience: Influences run in and out of each other; searing, stadium-ready wails from his electric guitar give way to skittering jazz chords, then a switchboard’s worth of Stockhausen twiddlings—through it all, your feeling is not of being jolted so much as expanded. Somehow, Pirog has held your hand, shown you poise through the process.

 
At the Atlas on Thursday, we’ll be watching performance videos of three musicians who have influenced Pirog. Then the audience will get to have a dialogue with him about what we’ve just watched, how he relates to that music, and his own artistic process. The Riffin’ session is free, so even if you don’t have a ticket to the show you can come and chat with us. But we do encourage you to stick for the trio’s performance at 8 p.m. — it’ll trace a path worth following.

 
Schedule of the remaining Riffin’ sessions:

• January 16, 2013: Anthony Pirog Trio
• February 1, 2014: Don Byron Gospel Quintet
• March 19, 2014: Washington Women in Jazz All-Stars w/special guests Mary Halvorson & Allison Miller
• April: No concerts
• May 10, 2014: Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

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Thursday’s Riffin’ session with Anthony Pirog at the Atlas Performing Arts Center begins at 7 p.m., and entry is free. The Anthony Pirog Trio performs at 8 p.m. Tickets to the concert cost $28.50 in advance, or $33.50 at the door, and can be purchased here. More information is available here.

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