Hank Roberts has been played on NTS in shows including Doing Time , featured first on 16 October 2022. Songs played include This Quietness.

Cellist Hank Roberts is one of the most accomplished jazz improvisers on his instrument, working mostly in the avant-garde and modern creative fields.

He plays the electric cello, and his style is a mixture of rock, jazz, avant garde, folk and classical influences. He emerged with the downtown New York Jazz scene of the 1980s and is strongly associated with its post-modern tendencies.

In the early '80s he made a number of recordings for the defunct JMT label, was a featured member of the Bill Frisell Quartet, and was an important voice in many groups of saxophonist Tim Berne. He also recorded three discs with the Arcado String Trio, an improvisational chamber group featuring Mark Feldman, violin, and Mark Dresser, double bass.

In the early '90s he left Frisell's group and stopped touring widely. Roberts continued to release recordings, if sporadically, including with the progressive folk group, Ti Ti Chickapea.

In 2008 Roberts' was again touring and performing regularly, releasing Green (with Jim Black and Marc Ducret) on the newly launched Winter and Winter label. In December 2011, Winter and Winter released Roberts' Everything is Alive, as well as re-releasing Roberts' entire JMT catalogue.