the of mirror eye

* black ox orkestar: shvartze flamen, vayser fayer (3.5 mb) | moscowitz terkisher (4.5 mb) | di khasene (8 mb)
from ver tanzt? : constellation : cst029-2

i’ve always had a fascination with jewish culture in general. i suppose this may have started back in the day when i read the chosen by chaim potok. his descriptions of the traditional jewish, the hasidic, utterly fascintated me. i mean, living in whitebread suburbia, i had no exposure at all to anything like that. at any rate. years later, while in college, my friend played a masada record for me and i immediately connected with it. the melodies was fantastic. a great mix of a sort of be-bop influenced jazz but with some weird melodies running through it. i later found out that masada is a jazz group fronted by saxophonist john zorn that uses klezmer melodies as their musical base. after hearing that album, i immediately delved into the klezmer world through zorn’s radical jewish culture releases on his tzadik label.

at any rate. the black ox orkestra are a great modern day adaption of traditional klezmer music. they’ve kept the mystery and the melancholy but updated it with influences from jazz and indie rock. the black ox are based out of montreal and have a home with constellation records.

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if any of you are in the on-the-feet-all-day sort of industry, you should look into getting a pair of dansko clogs. i just got a pair and my feet could not be happier. they provide fantastic foot support and are incredibly well made. they are kinda pricey, but i think they’re worth it. they’re also supposed to be very durable, but we’ll see about that, as i’ve been known to completely demolish a pair of shoes in half a year.