“I want to make it easier for people to discover that there are things happening in music and the arts outside of what’s covered by radio and the other media,” says composer and musician Gene Coleman. He’s developed a reputation in recent years for arranging performances of new and avant-garde music in such unconventional venues as lofts and nightclubs. His monthly “Face the Music” concerts celebrate their third anniversary April 9 at HotHouse. “Since there aren’t many forums where that kind of music can be heard regularly, I was looking to create a situation where people could just walk in and discover it . . . almost by accident.”
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Now Coleman wants to combine music, film, dance, and visual art in a performance series called “Recipe.” He says his goal is to mix new music with other art forms in a way that will draw parallels between what might seem like unrelated creative activities.
The second installment of “Recipe,” slated for May 3, will include collaborations between Coleman, choreographer Winifred Haun and her dance troupe, and New York jazz vocalist Theo Bleckmann, who has worked with Meredith Monk, Anthony Braxton, and John Zorn. A third performance on June 21 will be dedicated to “music and visual spectacle.” Jim O’Rourke will play music to films by violinist Tony Conrad, and there’ll also be a performance by the group Liof Munimula, whose homemade musical instruments are themselves a striking visual spectacle.
