Review Text
The Crossing the BLVD audio CD comes with the clothbound edition of the Crossing the BLVD book and is available as a stand alone CD. If as Lehrer says, "the book is the movie," then the CD is the soundtrack. Original new music compositions by Scott Johnson (of John-Somebody fame) and text-based audio compositions by Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer cross the boundaries between music and speech, journalism and expressionism, tradition and the avant-garde. All sampled voices are culled from interviews of "new immigrants" by Lehrer/Sloan on their three-year journey through the borough of Queens - the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States. Produced by Judith Sloan, the CD also includes music by Crossing the BLVD participants including the gypsy-punk-cabaret band Gogol Bordello, Nigerian gospel singer Kingsley Ogunde, and Romanian-American musicians Christine and Dinu Ghezzo. Beautifully performed and recorded, this CD is a rich and original musical soundscape that reflects the immigrant experience at the crossroads of a paradoxical and ever-changing America.
