Album Notes

This 2008 CD is a beautiful composition of modern beats, harmonies, and music combined with traditional ancient mantras, chants and bhajans. Most of the songs are sung by Sura. He has a raspy blues singer voice, being from Chicago, and played and sang the blues in coffee houses in his college days. In a few of the songs like Rake Krsna you can hear the Chicago tradition. The lovely Mahalaxmi sings sweet pure innocents on Hallowed Be Thy Names and Koda Nitai, to contrast Sura's mood. The amazing Christo and Adwaita play percussion, which slowly brings the chanting to its' crescendo. Eddie Young plays the bass and cello, while Marty is the master of sitar. Several men and women make up the background and harmony vocals to make this CD soulful, mellow and timeless.

The Temple Bhajan Band is a group of devotional chanters that tours Southern California's Yoga Studios, Yoga Retreats, and various social events. They have been together since 1999. The heart of the band is Sura whose voice is well known among practitioners of Yoga and Interfaith followers. While Sura sings to the accompaniment of the harmonium he leads the rest of the members on instruments such as the esaraja, tamboura, kartals, flute, violin, and mrdunga drum in a dynamic symphony that is timeless. The Temple Bhajan Band plays ancient Vedic bhajans, which include mantras and chants from spiritual India. Many of the chants are done in a responsive fashion where the audience can participate and experience the purifying pleasure of the chanting. At their events they also bring a slide show of India to exhibit during the chanting. To top off their events there is the distribution of a sumptuous vegetarian feast. Go and enJOY them l i v e !