Here are pictures from the shows in POLAND! (Click on both the links as they show you both days):
PICTURES FROM THE MEMORY AND TOLERANCE FESTIVAL IN POLAND
Here is the website:
http://www.tolerancja.chelmno.pl/eng/index.htm


This is my reflection from Poland's event:

Being a part of the Memory of Tolerance Weekend in Poland was one of the most profound experiences of my life. Having the honor of being the "American Jew" who was invited to be on the stage and bring the celebration part to the ceremony was exhilarating and humbling. This was no small event. The event was commemorating a Jewish cemetery that was destroyed in WWII by Nazis.
Saturday night we played a show opening for the most famous pop-star in Poland, Justyne Steczkowska. The crowd was hyped! We played our hour set to dancing folks and up-front screaming teen-agers. After our set we signed autographs and took pictures for at least a half-hour. Josh and Derek, the bassist and drummer, were also the subject of adoration and batting eyelashes.
Sunday was the official ceremony unveiling the plaque demarcating where the cemetery was. The ceremony was complete with international diplomats, choirs, politicians, and food that looked like royal cuisine for hundreds if not thousands.
That night we were the headlining band. We were to bring the Oakland bump, the California love, the booty shake to the event that was honoring my ancestors as well as a country in transition and rebirth. And we did. "High –eem! High-eem!" they chanted over and over again.
Over 60 years ago, the Nazis destroyed a Jewish cemetery walking distance from that stage. 3 million Polish Jews and an additional 3 million Poles died during WWII. The subsequent communist rule was often an oppressive and troubling regime.
And now, here were hoards of people---dignitaries, businessmen, townspeople, yelling in Hebrew "Life!!! Life!!!" We were not only celebrating the symbolic healing represented by a plaque honoring a destroyed cemetery, we were laying the groundwork for a future in which we are insisting that we learn from the wrongs of our past, a future where we honor differences as a strength, a future in which we celebrate this life and the abundance which we can all share---ripe with the sweetness of the new Polish-Oakland booty shake dancing into tomorrow. As I am home safely and enjoying the blessings of my home, I am grateful for this opportunity to represent my ancestors with joy and celebration.

And of course we had dope shows and adventures in the Czech Republic and The Netherlands, but I will save those tales for another day...

Big love all my homey homies.
Shalom, paz, namaste, salaam, salud.
Hyim

HYIM DOES DUB
The ancient connection between the prophets Moses and Haile Sellassie, the Lion of Judah and Bob Marley, and the Old Testament and Rastafarianism, reflects the fusion of music and lyrical content of reggae music and Jewish spiritual upliftment. The "eclectic maestro" (The Forward, NY), Yamaha sponsored artist, CA Music Awards Nominee, and KFOG Local Scene Artist, has once again proved that he knows no bounds. This hypnotic, hip-shaking dub is a powerful musical element of Hyim's musical body which he calls "urban world beat." THIS NEW SOUND, WHICH COMBINES DUB, DANCEHALL, CUBAN SON, SAMBA, HIP HOP, AND REGGAETON IS brilliantly executed, and the vocal delivery, COMPLETE WITH HEBREW PRAYERS AND SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS AS WELL AS TALES OF LIFE AND LOVE, is inter-stellar. Hyim is communing, inspiring meadows of audiences to blooming. To add a further plume in Hyim's capable cap, he free-styles half of the Hyim Does Dub show.
MAY 3RD...MOJITO CLUB...SAN FRANCISCO...9PM...FREE

Why I Make Music --- HYIM

I make music because it is like spiritual dental floss. The music reverberates through my body---it's a bonnafied cleanser. Every time I sing I feel better about life and all that is around me. It is also my means of casting my words and energy into the world that is aimed in the direction of peace and positive communion. Music is my surfboard on which I travel. Music takes me not only on tours, but into the minds and hearts and bodies of people all over the world as well. My music is meant to bring joy and solace. This music that I make is chi (universal energy as described in various Eastern traditions) that uses me as a conduit. As I have said, I make music because I want peace in this world for my parents and my brothers and sisters and for our children and their children yet to come. Perhaps this story explains a little of that: When I was 6 years old I was playing piano on a Saturday morning in my father's living room in my Under-roos. I was playing quietly so my father could sleep (he was also the one who taught me to play). As I was improvising I heard something behind me. I turned around and my father was sitting in a chair crying. I became very worried and asked what was wrong. He said, "Nothing. It's beautiful. Keep playing." And I haven't stopped playing. Four years later, my father was shot and murdered. Perhaps playing music allows me to continue to feel connected to him. On a larger scale, music and dancing and singing are generally only possible when in the immediate vicinity there is peace. Music is what I am supposed to do; plus it's so fun! I get to learn musical styles and bring them together: Cuban piano montunos with Indian raags, hip-hop beats with classical bassoon motifs, etc. It's an alchemy of expression, this Urban World Beat music. Playing with other musicians and dancers and listening and physically moving together is a love-making that is profoundly uplifting. Yet my music is also just me at the piano, quietly singing to my dad and to everyone else who has lost people they love. At the same time, it's just hella fresh and feels good to create something that moves people---body and mind, booty and spirit. For that I am grateful!!!

These are the reasons that I make music.

I thank the almighty creator for this.

Selah
Shalom, namaste, a salaam, saludos, paz

Hyim

November 2006

(((hylife 31)))

June 15, 2006
HYIM IN JAIL. I AM IN JAIL...

TONIGHT I DID A SHOW DOWN SOUTH AT THE STATE JUVENILE HALL.
A JAILED GYMNASIUM OF TEEN AGERS
SITTING, LISTENING, BOBBIN THEIR HEAD--
HAVING A BALL.

AND THERE I WAS
DOING AN HOUR SET
SPEAKING
WORDS OF PEACEFUL WARRIORSHIP.

SANG MY SONGS
AND THEY SANG ALONG
GIRLS IN PINK ON ONE SIDE
AND 3 SECTIONED GROUPS OF BOYS IN PURPLE
GREEN
OR BLUE.
MORE THAN A HUNDRED, PROBABLY MORE THAN TWO.
FOLKS WERE FROM MENLO, EAST PALO ALTO, AND A FEW FROM OAKLAND TOO.

WENT AROUND THE ROOM AND EACH GROUP GAVE ME THREE WORDS.
THEN I FREE STYLED USING THE WORDS AND THATS WHEN THE ENERGY GOT CRAZY ABSURD.

THEY LOVED IT.
THEY SAID AND I RHYMED IT: HYPHIE, LOVE, ROGUISH, AND THEIR TURF OR HOMETOWN.
BIG BOYS BLOCK OR A RHYME FOR FREEDOM WHILE MY BEATS POUND.
WHATEVER THEIR WORDS WERE I HAVE SIX WITH A SIMILAR PHONEMIC SOUND.

I PRONOUNCED THEM ENDEARINGLY.
THEY HAD LOVE FOR THE HY-DOG SO
I GAVE THE BEST I HAD, SINCERELY.

THEN I SANG A BALLAD.
AND BEFORE IT SAID TO THE FELLAS:
HAVE THE STRENGTH TO BE SENSITIVE
AND THE COURAGE TO BE KIND.
BE AWARE THAT EACH MOMENT IS AN OPPORTUNITY AND YOUR LIFE WILL BEGIN TO UNFOLD AND IN TIME

LIKE THE WORLDS FIGHTING CHAMPION GRACEY : WORK IT LIKE AIKIDO. MAKE LIFE A LITTLE MORE NEAT-OH.

TO PUT AN EXCLAMATION MARK ON IT
I SAID THE PLAYERS IN THE ROOM KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT.
AND THAT IS A GRAND THING TO HAVE A FEW YOUNG THUGS SNAP ALONG TO MY SONG I LAY MY HEART.

AT THE END A FEW FOLKS GOT UP
AND GOT ON THE MIC
THAT WAS TIGHT.
EVERYONE WAS GETTING HYPED.

AND I ENDED THE NIGHT AFTER MY D.O.G.
OR IS IT MAMBO FOR MONEY FOR MY G.O.D.
DID MY SONG THATS CALLED BYE BYE
WITH A REGGAETON BEAT.
ADIOS, SHALOM, SIANARA, NAMASTE, PEACE.

THE TEENAGERS WERE MOVING IN THEIR SEAT AND WHISTLED AND CLAPPED.
THE MUSIC STOPPED AND THEY WERE TOLD TO SHUT THEIR MOUTHS, FORM A LINE WITH THEIR HANDS CLASPED BEHIND THEIR BACKS.

AND I SAID PEACE AND BOWED TO THEM AND SAID:
BLESSINGS ON YOUR YOUTHFULNESS--
THOUGHT COMES BEFORE ACTION
SO THINK SO YOU DONT COME BACK TO THIS MESS & IN A STATE NUMBER UNIFORM HAVE TO DRESS.

AND NOW I GO TO SLEEP.
AND ALL 200 OF EM ARE BEHIND A LOCKED DOOR.
I KISS THE BED THAT I LAY ON AND THANK MY ANCESTORS WHO CAME I, BEFORE.

HYIM'S SPRING NORTHWEST TOUR

Whats up all my peoples out there in the world. One love, northern Cali style, to all of you individually.

This is the story of my Northwest Tour

First day: with Izzy in the back seat and the back pack stuffed with dog, food, music gear, and my baggage. From Oakland to Jonahs Oregon, Eugene home (drum roll strings!): The Soccer Mom (thats the name of my car) safely underground b/4 playing for pizza and cabbage.

But first, Sound Man Joe takes me through the green streets. Sound Man Joe plays bass and has a kind face, he knows the ropes. Back to the venue to hit the show, and I looped my beats with drums and bells and whistles, strummed my guitar like a sitar, tickled the ivories electric, played my beats eclectic, sang sad songs kinetic, and in the end the audience was up dancing! Well by-golly.

Next day Easter Sunday--played two hour sets. Let Out A Little Peace. Met some cool folks and let go of some CDs for lease. Burned one at the top of butte and chilled, what the heck. Easter Sunday, CHECK.

Monday, my fifth grade teacher had us all over for bagels and lox. A jacuzzi in the back and a stream to dip my curly brown locks. Sweetest folks and a piano played by Joplin. Not the strong screamin white girl from the 70s but the old school cabaret rockin.

Tuesday rocked the show at the University of OR. Oregon is tight, yo. All green and yellow. Its hella mellow. Muy traquillo. Yes, all my homies, I had drummers bangin on stage with me for this one, I say. And it was clear blue skies and the crowd sang to Sunny Day.

Next day, I drove further north to Evergreen. A University in Washington that is a sight to be seen. Apparently its fairly anti-disestablishmentary. But it seemed appropriate for the college ordinary. Thanks Jesse. Played a party that night and the next day the Earth Day Festival bash. 4-20 on a Thursday and everyone was smoking some pass.

Left and off to Seattle to the University of Washington. Go Huskies! You Dubb. So I dubbed it out. Stayed in the womens dorm living room of the leader of the Earth Club. Went out salsa dancing on a 4-20 rainy Seattle Thursday, spinning and flirting no one hurtin'. I like being on tour. If you like it, theres more.

Friday played with drummers on the Hub of You Dubb to throngs of Earth Day believers as they passed by going to their classes and each one hearing Hy. Dancing in costumes of fish, soda cans, and newspaper foam. Earth dwellers, we howled like the Huskies we were for the sunshine come. And on me and the 4 drummers who played by my side: the sun shone and honey dipped us from the sky, it reminded me of someone back home.

Bounced down to Eugene and slept on Shabbat. Slept in and then off. Off to Ashland to play the holy temple and rock. Arrived and put up in a palace on a mountain top. Looking at white tipped peaks that told of a lot. From the distance there I saw, though squinted my eyes was: Shasta Mountain, the place where I would return.

But off I whipped to the Sunday night hype. To play in a place where Rabbis recite: words of evolution, of spirit, of grace. Words that attempt what is already written on your face. The show was great, a standing ovation (who Hy?) and laughter still. The DOG song will bring a young audience to life, like the number from the lottery that just changed your life.

So the G-D is free, or is it the DOG? Izzy is making more friends than me. Let's see, all I know is I left the show and was off to another after-party.

And we all know thats where the fun begins. Where I knew the bar-tender and even some of her friends.

And more songs were sung that night. Some on stage. But some were sung in a back alley, that just needed to be un-caged.

And that is the end of the tour, and the beginning of freedoms Spring. When the roses bloom, something that changes almost everything. In Peace.

www.myspace.com/hyim

come and join the HYLIFE.

Be well to all my people out there in the world. Change A Come.

HYIM AND THE FAT FOAKLAND ORCHESTRA AT SAN FRANCISCOS CARNIVAL THIS YEAR!!!!

Thank you for reading this, spread the good word

Shalom, paz, namaste, a salaam.

Spring, 2006 hylife ..

Selah

San Francisco Chronicle Link

San Francsico Chronicle

Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, February 20, 2006

Hyim Jacob Ross chained himself to a park bench in Oakland on Monday in what he said was the start of a five-day fast to protest the prevalence of inequality and injustice in America when the country is spending so much on a war.

Ross, a musician, teaches music at Coronado Elementary School in Richmond and ethics, spirituality and interpersonal communication at two synagogues in the East Bay.

"The war in Iraq is putting our nation into incredible debt and draining enormous financial, social, economic, industrial and political resources," said Ross who was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland.

All that spending comes when 2 million California children are hungry and the state's prison population is at an all-time high, he said.

"If we have the resources to send 200,000 people to Iraq, why can't we train those people to educate our children?" Ross asked.

Pauline Mitchell rushed to deliver supplies of water to Ross after hearing about his protest on TV Monday morning.

She said she took her son, who is 15, out of public school and placed him in a Muslim school because she felt he would get a better education. She praised public school teachers but said they don't have the resources to do the job.

"People have got to stand up," she said.

Ross sat in a folding chair attached to the bench by 40 feet of linked chain, with his wrists bound by handcuffs and an A's cap on his head. He spoke quietly, as if conserving energy. A small American flag waved from the chair. A California bear flag was spread out on the sidewalk, weighted with water bottles.

Ross plans to subsist on water and juice and to unchain himself only for bathroom breaks at the nearby Grand Lake Theater. He wanted to chain himself in front of Oakland's federal buildings but found out he'd be subject to fines and imprisonment under the Patriot Act.

Ross said he checked with the Oakland Police Department about holding the protest in the park area. "They didn't really get back, so I decided to go ahead and do it," he said.

Ross said he decided to take advantage of a weeklong winter break from school to speak out about vital issues. He said the protest is personal and an exercise of his First Amendment rights, but he welcomes visitors.

Ross spoke about the lives of want his students lead in Richmond.

"I work with kids who have crack-addicted parents," he said. "One of my kids -- last week his cousin was shot in the face and died. A lot my kids have asthma."

He said chips and Coke are staples in many of the children's diets.

Leonardo Cossio, a Brazilian intern working in international relations at a San Francisco nonprofit, plans to help Ross.

"I support the idea of acting locally and trying to show people that we need to connect as human beings," he said.

Also offering moral support Monday were Marissa and Jonathan Glidden, siblings from Moraga who are students in Ross' teen classes at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette.

"A little crazy, but I think it's really inspiring," Marissa said of Ross' fast. "We need people like this to go out and make a difference."

"A lot of people sit down and complain about stuff," Jonathan said. "Then there are people who do something about it."