Aaron Shaw at TreePeople (photo by Sam Lee)
Every month we gather with our local heroic environmental stewards of TreePeople to love on live music and hot tea along a ridge trail of the Santa Monica Mountains. Once we’ve held time together to share in meaningful art, warm tea, (sometimes) a sunset, and good conversation, TreePeople’s eco educators then split us into three different hiking groups for peoples of all ages and abilities to learn more about the native ecology and history of these mountains.
For our final moonlight hike of this winter, our dear friend Aaron Shaw will be sitting in to soundtrack moonrise with some of the finest melodious woodwinding that LA has to offer. A student of the spirit (and a rigorous education), Aaron Shaw has steadily become one of LA’s sweetest and most in demand players, sharing sounds city-wide alongside artists like Saul Williams, Carlos Niño, Herbie Hancock, Anderson .Paak, Kamasi Washington, and Tyler, The Creator. For many years now he and his brother have been playing, recording, touring, and composing as Black Nile, and this week we finally receive the long awaited debut album of Aaron Shaw as bandleader via our Leaving Records family.
Bring a blanket, pour some tea, and bliss in.
Check-in begins at 6:30pm, music shortly after 7pm, and we split into our hiking groups promptly at 8pm. Parking is limited so we ask that you please rsvp with us in advance.
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Multi-instrumentalist Aaron Shaw is one of Los Angeles’s brightest young composers, producers, arrangers, band leaders, and music directors.
A frequent fixture at The World Stage in Leimert Park, Shaw has collaborated with everyone from Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Phil Ranelin, Herbie Hancock, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, to Mary J. Blige, Dave Chapelle, Tyler, The Creator, Anderson .Paak, Nightmares on Wax and many more less well known OG, established, emerging, and underground Artists in the LA Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rap, Electronic, and Experimental Music scenes.
Born and raised in Ladera Heights, he cut his teeth at the Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center and the LA County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) before eventually entering the tutelage of Kamasi Washington, who he is featured with in tandem musical conversation on the entirety of the 2025 release Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople.
After years of study, dedication, and gig-work, the path to his first full-length release proved to be a perilous one. And So It Is, out February 13th on Leaving Records, documents the physical, musical, and spiritual transformation thrust upon an already extraordinary talent.
Born in 1973 from the hopes and dreams of a teenager, TreePeople is now one of the largest environmental organizations headquartered in Southern California.
They have inspired, engaged, and supported more than 3 million people to take action for our environment by planting and caring for more than 3 million trees in our local forests, mountains, parks, and our neighborhoods. Through on-the-ground research and educational programs, TreePeople shares knowledge with policymakers, students, educators, and communities around the world.
After fires burn, TreePeople reforests. When schools are covered in concrete, TreePeople creates green schoolyards. When communities experience food insecurity, TreePeople distributes fruit trees. When California is drought-stricken, TreePeople designs solutions to capture rainwater. As the world faces increasing threats from a more hostile climate, TreePeople helps create actionable solutions.