Jony Iliev and Band "Ma Maren Ma" Asphalt Tango Records

Every cliché about gypsies seems to come true with Jony Iliev, with his dark, exotic good looks, his voice that is at once filled with despair and exaltation, and his earthy, passionate songs.

Raised in Bulgaria, among Europe's largest gypsy population, Iliev was born to this music played in the nightclubs and town squares. It's music to be danced to.

The songs can be intense, swirling, hypnotic. Iliev's voice can shift from breaking with sadness to teasing with good humor, sometimes in the same song as with the album's opener, the American dream, "Arizona."

The title cut is a slow, swaying shuffle summing up the long, tortured history of gypsies. "Why are you throwing stones at me? I am a child of gypsies and know no father," a groaning Iliev sings.

Iliev's band features alto sax, clarinet, drums, double bass and traditional instruments like the git and ace.