Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy (Hindi: नज़ीर अली जैराज़भाई; October 31, 1927 – June 20, 2009) was a professor of folk and classical music of South Asia at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was the founding chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology.
In 1967, credited as "Soma", he played sitar on The Incredible String Band's album The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion.
[4] He was a student of Dr. Arnold Adriaan Bake at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, receiving his doctorate in 1971.
[citation needed] He founded the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE) of the American Institute of Indian Studies in New Delhi.
[citation needed] He was married to the ethnomusicologist and singer Dr. Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and they both co-owned Apsara Media for Intercultural Education in Van Nuys, California.