All right, this is obviously not the Brian Lairshel theme.

Listen for a minute, and then we'll tell you why we're playing it.

That's good, right? Now we're beginning a little mini-series on some of the lesser-known music worlds of New York City, not the top of the charts, types of music, but some of the

groups supporting styles of music that maybe could only be found in a city like ours, right?

So for the rest of the membership drive, we at the end of the show,

we'll introduce you to musicians and composers of distinctive kinds to talk about the programming

or the community they represent and how you can get involved if you're interested as an artist or a listener,

and they will give you the scoop on the often difficult life of an artist in a not-super-pop

genre in New York City. And our first guests in this series are Neil Mergey, a satirist.

We were just hearing to a satar-oriented piece,

satarist, overtone singer, percussionist, composer, and teacher.

And Roshney Samlal, a Trinidadian tabla player composer and teacher,

they are the artistic directors of the Brooklyn Raga Massive.

The Brooklyn Raga Massive, a Raga-inspired musicians collective,

and we heard a little of their music coming in. So, Neil and Roshney, welcome to WNYC.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you for having us.

Neil, you want to introduce people who don't know to what Raga music is?

Sure, I'd be happy to. Raga literally means that which colors the mind.

So it can be conceived of as like a painting in your mind where each note is a different color, a different mood, a different feeling.

And then you string them together.

You know, more practically, it's a scale.

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