Crossing the Blvd: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America

by Johnson, Scott; Sloan, Judith; Lehrer, Warren; DRISCOLL, KERMIT

• ISBN13: 9780393105889
• ISBN10: 0393105881
• Edition: Unabridged
• Format: CD
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

From 1999- 2002, documentary artists Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan traveled the world by trekking the streets of their home borough of Queens, NY the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States in search of story, culture, and soul. The result is a book (W.W. Norton), a series of public radio documentaries, a performance-work, and this audio CD documenting many of the people Sloan/Lehrer encountered along their way. This Crossing the BLVD CD features original music compositions by Scott Johnson (of John Somebody fame), text/audio compositions by Sloan/Lehrer, and music by Crossing the BLVD participants. Scott Johnson's compositions for sampled voices and an electro-acoustic chamber ensemble, and text/audio pieces by Sloan & Lehrer cross the boundaries between music and speech, journalism and expressionism, tradition and the avant-garde. Music by Crossing the BLVD participants include the gypsy-punk-cabaret band Gogol Bordello, Nigerian gospel singer Kingsley Ogunde, Romanian-American musicians Christine and Dinu Ghezzo, and more. Beautifully performed and recorded, this CD is a rich and original musical soundscape that reflects the new immigrant experience at the crossroads of a paradoxical and ever-changing America.