In 1976, Swamini Turiyasangitananda (Alice Coltrane) established The Vedantic Center in the Santa Monica Mountains neighborhood of Agoura Hills, later naming it the Sai Anantam Ashram. This 50-acre ashram served as a sanctuary where seekers from all faiths were welcomed and experienced sublime teachings on spiritual life. As her daughter Michelle Coltrane has shared, “Sunday services were filled with music, chanting, meditation and my mother’s discourses.” These discourses instilled the transformational power of sound and that by chanting the names of god one could connect to divine consciousness. Music was the foundation of Turiya’s spiritual practice, and at her ashram, she conducted epic bhajan sessions where chants were guided by the swirl and pulse of her Wurlitzer organ into uncharted, cosmic planes.
It was around this time, in 1977, when an organization of young naturalists calling themselves TreePeople moved into the site of an old fire station further east along the Santa Monica Mountains. Working from the belief that the simple act of planting a tree can carry broader societal effects, TreePeople took root within the 45-acre Coldwater Canyon Park, just down the 101 from the The Vedantic Center. Today, they’re one of the largest environmental organizations in Southern California and over these past 50 years have planted more than 3 million trees. When the Sai Anantam Ashram burnt in 2018’s devastating Woolsey Fire, TreePeople were on the front lines of habitat restoration, bringing thousands of native plants back into the landscape.
Though TreePeople and the Sai Anantam Ashram’s histories have been intertwined, sharing a mountain range and communal determination towards enriching the world around us, these histories have never overtly overlapped. This August 27th, on the night of Swamini Turiyasangitananda’s 87th solar return, we bring this devotional music back into the familiar scents of coast live oaks, black walnut, toyon, and laurel sumac that first carried this music into the air. We hope that you’ll join us.
This evening was presented and organized by Surya Botofasina and Carlos Niño with love and support from TreePeople and Living Earth. Surya Botofasina of The Sai Anantam Ashram led an ensemble of Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau, and Andres Renteria playing bhajans and progressive sounds inspired from Turiyasangitananda’s devotional music.
Raised at the Sai Anantam Ashram in Sourthern California, Surya Botofasina was mentored from an early age by the legendary harpist, pianist and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane. Her musical and religous teachings continue to have a profound effect on the keyboardist, whose practice has continued t grow alongside a diverse range of musical collaborations alongside Georgia Anne Muldrow as well as Carlos Niño and Nate Mercereau with who he played a major role in Andre 3000’s latest record New Blue Sun. His work as the Music Director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers has seen him tour internationally honoring Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane’s devotional music.
A prolific album Producer, expansive Percussionist, experimental Composer, connector, communicator, Carlos Niño is known primarily for his main project Carlos Niño & Friends, and for his extensive work on André 3000's New Blue Sun. Previously Niño made albums as/with Ammoncontact, Build An Ark, The Life Force Trio, and many others. Niño cites Iasos, Laraaji, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, Adam Rudolph, Idris Ackamoor, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane, Airto, Kamau Daaood, Dwight Trible, Dexter Story, Jesse Peterson, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jamire Williams, Deantoni Parks, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, and André 3000 as among his “closest Mentors, Influences, Elders, and peers, all of whom I know well, (or at least met several times,) in this life . . ."