Ver Tanzt?

Featuring musicians from Silver Mr. Zion and Sackville, Black Ox Orkestar is a Montreal-based quartet that formed in 1999 to play European Jewish folk music. Filtering traditional klezmer tunes through a sensibility shaped by indie rock and free jazz, Black Ox infuses these pieces with a highly original approach to arrangement, freely borrowing from Turkish, Balkan, and Greek folk idioms along the way. Their debut album, "Ver Tanzt?" strikes a perfect balance between faithfulness to sources and extrapolation from contemporary influences, while offering a challenge (both musically and lyrically) to modern Jewish political orthodoxies. Released April 2004.