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