Philip Glass: Taxi Driver

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - Philip Glass: Taxi Driver

In the 1970s the composer Philip Glass drove a taxi around Manhattan to make ends meet.

Philip Glass drove a taxi on New York’s most dangerous streets, as he built up a reputation in the downtown arts scene. From 2015.

Philip Glass revisits his parallel lives in 1970s New York - driving a taxicab through threatening twilight streets while emerging as a composer in Manhattan's downtown arts scene.

The Philip Glass Ensemble formed in 1968 and performed in lofts, museums, art galleries and, eventually, concert halls. Two of Glass's early pieces - the long form Music In Twelve Parts and the opera Einstein on the Beach - secured his reputation as a leading voice in new music.
 
But America's soon-to-be most successful contemporary composer continued to earn a living by driving a taxi until he was 42.

"I would show up around 3pm to get a car and hopefully be out driving by 4. I wanted to get back to the garage by 1 or 2am before the bars closed, as that wasn't a good time to be driving. I'd come home and write music until 6 in the morning."

Glass's new musical language - consisting of driving rhythms, gradually evolving repetitive patterns and amplified voice, organs and saxophones - reflected the urgency of the city surrounding him. New York, on the brink of financial collapse, was crime-ridden and perilous. 

Driving a cab offered more than a window on this gritty, late night world. Almost every other month, according to Glass, a driver colleague was murdered. Glass escaped altercations with gangs and robbers in his cab.

Contributors:

John Schaefer
Philip Glass
John Gibson
Joan La Barbara

Producer:  Paul Smith

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in August 2015.

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