Laurie Anderson in SF: From jazz to avant garde to Ming dynasty

Expect surprises when composer, musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson comes to SFJazz Center for a mini-residency Jan. 23-26.

Much earlier in her career, when she was collaborating with William S. Burroughs, vocalist, violinist, keyboardist and performance artist/ringleader Laurie Anderson created a hypnotic piece around the Beat writer’s assertion that “language is a virus from outer space.”

Much like Burroughs, she’s always seemed like a sardonic visitor from another planet, sent here to observe the strange and quirky folkways of the natives. Her stint as a resident artistic director at the SFJazz Center has provided a welcome forum for expanding her musical investigations, and Anderson opens her new four-night run Jan. 23 with bass master Christian McBride and Albanian-born cellist Rubin Kodheli, a close Anderson confederate.

She performs in a duo with Kodheli on Jan. 24, and Jan. 25 joins forces with Mr. Bungle and Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton for a concert exploring text from Qi Jiguang’s Ming dynasty military manual “Jixiao Xinshu.” She closes the run Jan. 26 with a solo performance.

For Anderson, an artist who’s organized huge multimedia events, the residency format has turned into a productive route to hone new collaborations and reignite existing relationships.

“It’s pretty intimidating but also something I’ve watched John Zorn do for a while,” she says of the avant-garde composer and musician. “He doesn’t tour so much as do residencies. It’s much better for the energy of artists than to do one-offs and leave. More and more interested in that way of working.”

Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23-25, 7 p.m. Jan. 26; SFJazz Center, San Francisco; $35-$95; 866-920-5299, www.sfjazz.org.