Vince Delgado was born and raised in the Mission district of San Francisco. Graduated from Mission High School in 1951 and from San Francisco State in 1961 with a BA in Art and Cultural Anthropology. He was a musician all through Jr. High School till now. He studied Japanese classical music from 1951 to 1956 and Classical North Indian music for 13 yrs., from 1965 to 1978. He spent 25 years on Broadway St. in San Francisco playing in Arabic night clubs where he performed with many musicians from different parts of the Middle East. For the last ten years he has been working on the Kanun and had lessons with two virtuosos of this insrtument, Goksel Batagir and Halil Karaduman of Turkey.
1950 - 1958 Jazz percussionist
1962-present Near Eastern percussionist; plays Arabic tabla (also called darabukka, derbeki, doumbek); daff and other percussion instruments. Plus the Kanun (73 stringed Zither).
Nightclubs: Vagabond, San Francisco; Arabian Nights, Fresno; Arabian Nights, San Francisco; Gigi's Port Said, San Francisco; Casbah Cabaret, San Francisco; Bagdad Cabaret, San Francisco; Zorba's, Sacramento; Symposion Restaurant, San Anselmo; Zorba's Restaurant, San Rafael; the Grapeleaf Restaurant, San Francisco; Ali's Restaurant, Kensington (N. Berkeley); Sultana's, San Jose; Amira, San Francisco, and others.
Numerous Arabic, Armenian, Turkish and other ethnic group functions, including weddings, religious holidays, church benefits, picnics, and the like.
Accompanied many Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Persian musicians, including Dr. Ali Jihad Racy, Ishmael Alan Mills, Richard Hagopian, Simon Shaheen and others.
Co-founder (with Mimi Spencer and Devi-ja Delgado) of Jazayer, an American ensemble performing and recording classical, urban and folkloric music of the Near East.
1990 Member of Turkish music ensemble Yasha!
1969 - present North Indian Percussionist, plays North Indian tabla. Performed with Shankar Ghosh, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and advanced disciples of Ali Akbar Khan.
1968 Performed with the Grateful Dead Rock Band at the Berkeley Community Theater
1976 Soloist with Diga Rhythm Band, opening for the Grateful Dead at Winterland, San Francisco and for Jefferson Starship Rock Band in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
1970's Directed his own percussion ensemble, the Daff and Drum Band
1969-present Regular member of and soloist with Zakir Hussain and the Rhythm Experience
1969-present Co-founder in 1985 of original jazz ensemble Hijaz
1997-2007 Performed with the Murasaki Ensemble, a fusion jazz group with Shirley Muramoto on Koto. House band for the Asian Art Museum for ten years, plus concerts in various local venues
1997-2007 Performed and recorded with the group Under The Sun, a Yugoslavian Jazz, Mediterranean Tango group
1970's Performed with Freilach groups Simcha Orchestra and the Golden Gate Gypsies as well as with many other musicians and ensembles.
2006-2010 Steady engagement with the Donny Mac Trio, Latin Jazz, Congas, Bongos, and Egyptian Riqq. Uva Trattoria Restaurant, Napa
2009 Golden Thread Theater Co. production of Ecstacy, a Sufi tale. Consultant. Thick Theatre,S.F.
2009 Performing and recording with Jazz Pianist Larry Vuckovich on and off for fifteen years. Last performance at Yoshi’s with the Blue Balkan Ensemble
2000-2006 Performed with Aswat, Arabic Community Choir
2002-2010 Performing with The Arabic Orchestra of San Francisco, under the guidance of Saed Muhssin, Oud player from Palestine. Small intimate venues, except for two at the De Young Museum during the King Tut exhihibit.
2009 The Loom and the Ship (Penelope and Odesseus) an original play performed at the Noh Space, S.F. Original and ancient Greek music. Kanun and Percussion.
2007 Bombay, India. Herbst Theater,S.F. Stanford, Palo Alto with Zakir Hussain. Also with John McLaughlin in India.
2002 Marin Shakespeare production of a Thousand and One Nights. Original music by Vince Delgado. Performed with Coralie Russo, Oud and Vince Delgado Kanun and percussion. Eight week presentation.
June, 1997 Murasaki Ensemble. Mayors Conference, San Francisco, California, reception for Vice President Al Gore
February, 1997 Appeared on Turkish Sanayolu Television, Istanbul, Turkey, with Oudist, Necati Çelik of the Turkish Cultural Ministry and the Turkish National Conservatory of Music and Mimi Spencer, Kanoonist
March, 1997 Paris, France concert, Nuit Des Percussions, with Zakir Hussain, Vikku Vinayakaram, Selva Ganesh,and Sivamani,of India. Madjid Khaladji of Iran, and Adel Shams El Din of Egypt
October 16, 1993 (In collaboration with master percussionists C. K. Ladzepko of Ghana, Malonga Casquelourd of the Congo, latin percussionist John Santos, Seichi Tanaka of Japan, Jose Lorenzo of Brazil and Jeff Narell, steel pans) San Francisco Yerba Buena Cultural Center
September 18 - 24, 1993 Appeared on Turkish National Radio and Television (TRT-1) at the invitation of Necati Çelik of the Turkish Cultural Ministry and the Turkish National Conservatory of Music, Istanbul, Turkey.
September 17, 1993 (with Zakir Hussain and the Rhythm Experience) Wembley Conference Center, London, England
September 6, 1992 (with Zakir Hussain and the Rhythm Experience) Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle, Washington
September 5, 1992 (with Zakir Hussain & the Rhythm Experience) Art Quake Festival, Intermediate Theatre, Portland, Oregon
August, 1991 World Percussion Festival, in collaboration with other master drummers including Eddie Marshall, Seichi Tanaka, Carolyn Brandy, and Zakir Hussain
November 21, 1991 Bolting-on Ceremony for Yerba Buena Cultural Center, San Francisco, with master drummers Malonga Casquelourd, Swapan Chaudhuri, John Santos and Gary Tsujimoto
November 10, 1990 World Percussion Festival, San Francisco, sponsored by City Celebrations, San Francisco
1966-1986 Near Eastern percussion (weekly classes , Ashkenaz, Berkeley. Dance studios in S.F.,Berk., Sebastopol, Forest Knolls, San Rafael. Now teaches privately)
Taught workshops and seminars throughout the United States - at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Hawaii, in Anchorage, Alaska, and elsewhere
1970 North Indian tabla, privately, for classes at the Ali Akbar College of Music, and at the University of Rochester
2008 - 2010 Lecture Demonstrations of Middle Eastern Modal System and Rhythms. Performing on the Kanun (Middle Eastern horizontal 73 stringed harp) and percussion. with Coralie Russo, Oud and Robbie Belgrade, Riqq.
1968 - 1969 Executive Director, Ali Akbar College of Music, Berkeley, California
1989 - 1997 Operations Manager, In Defense Of Animals, an animal rights advocacy organization, Mill Valley, California