Album Notes

Hyim (pronounced: "high-eem") named his newest self-produced album after his band: Hyim And The Fat Foakland Orchestra (aka HATFFO). Of significance, the Oakland-based band was nominated for a California Music Award in 2004 based solely on their jaw-dropping live show. "Yeah, I like to see the people shake their thing," he says. Getting an average of 12,000 hits on the hyimvibe.com website a week, Hyim's fan-base seems to be expanding at a big-bang ratio. Increased downloads of his debut album, "Let Out A Little Peace" [2003] and the amount of buzz in the Bay Area and throughout California (he played the grandstand stage at 2004's High Sierra Music Festival as well as other impressive venues) around this new sound suggests that this is the "take off" album for Hyim's lifelong career. Dubbed "the ever-evolving eclectic maestro" (Malina Sarah Saval, The Forward, New York), Hyim, a Yamaha sponsored artist, calls his music Urban World Beat. Retailers suggest this 15-track studio album go in the "rock" or "pop" category. "He's a hip-hop generation Peter Gabriel," suggests a KPFA DJ. On the album, released in April 2005, hip-hop beats meet live string arrangements and orchestrated horn sections compliment pulsating reggaeton piano montunos. Hyim, Hebrew for "life," is a performer, composer, pianist, poet, dancer, playwright, guitar player, percussionist, and last but not least: producer extraordinaire.

"I've been compared to everyone from Eddie Palmieri to Eminem, Jamiroquai to Manu Chao, Wyclef Jean to Dave Matthews. But I can shake my thing better than Dave Matthews," Hyim laughs. He would know. His main-man bassist on the album and in performance, Mark Calderon, played with Dave's drummer Carter Beauford (as well as the legendary guitarist Leo Neocentelli of The Meters). It seems Hyim, also a teacher and Reki practitioner, is already amongst the accomplished. He plays keys for Jennifer Johns, who tours singing for Blackalicious and KRS-1. HATFFO's drummer, Michael Faiella, has played with Wyclef Jean, while the percussionists of the crew (Ajayi Jackson and Pablo Soto) have played with Omar Sosa, John Santos, and Antibalas, just to name a few. This highly anticipated album is an evolution in the musical chain. When performing live without his band, Hyim loops himself playing most of his instruments-it is something to see. The critics rave, the fans move, and Hyim's label, Family Productions, is pushing Hyim and the new album, Hyim and the Fat Foakland Orchestra, through every speaker and into every ear drum it can get it's musical wings into.