#5004, Musical Storytelling

Hear storytelling music that occupies the space between speech and song by Laurie Anderson, the late Robert Ashley, and Bob Samarotto.

Listen to music by the late American composer Robert Ashley, responsible for the development of video- or television-operas. Revisit his work, “The Backyard,” featuring keyboard, tabla, and the composer’s voice, which is perhaps a comic opera about reincarnation (touching on bank robbery, cocktail lounges, geriatric love, adolescent elopement) and includes camera directions, because after-all, it is a “television-opera.” There’s also a work by the late saxophonist, composer, and poet Bob Samarotto, recorded in our studios in 1990, his Little Piano Book, which is a series of poems about studying the piano. 

AND, hear a piece by Laurie Anderson, who holds forth on bowling and a pizza party with nuns, a postponed seminar on language, and a pilgrimage to Herman Hesse’s gravesite from a 1995 spoken word album. - Caryn Havlik

Program #5004, Musical Storytelling (First aired 5/2/2025)

ARTIST: Bob Samarotto & Zeitgeist
WORK: Little Piano Book [1:00]
RECORDING: Zeitgeist, live, WNYC, 1990
SOURCE/INFO: Live recording. This work is not commercially available.

ARTIST: Robert Ashley
WORK: The Backyard [23:06]
RECORDING: Perfect Lives / Private Parts
SOURCE: Lovely Music #1001 
INFO: lovely.com

ARTIST: Laurie Anderson
WORK: Maria Teresa Teresa Maria [5:44]
RECORDING: The Ugly One with the Jewels and Other Stories
SOURCE: Rhino/Warner Bros.
INFO: Available at AppleMusic, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube

ARTIST: Bob Samarotto & Zeitgeist
WORK: Little Piano Book [14:40]
RECORDING: Zeitgeist, live, WNYC, 1990
SOURCE/INFO: Live recording. This work is not commercially available.