Album Notes

Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America is a multi-media project that portrays the largely invisible lives and stories of new immigrants and refugees in the borough of Queens New York - the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States. From 1999 through 2002, interdisciplinary artists Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan traveled the world by trekking the streets of their home borough in search of story, culture, and soul. The result is a 400 page, full color book (W. W. Norton), public radio documentaries, an exhibition, a performance -work, and this Audio CD. Original music compositions by Scott Johnson (of John Somebody fame), and text/audio compositions by Sloan/Lehrer cross the boundaries between music and speech, journalism and expressionism, tradition and the avant-garde. Produced by Judith Sloan the CD also includes 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 others. 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. www.crossingtheblvd.org