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World On Your Street: The Global Music Challenge
Vicente Zahartos Isidro
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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!


Musician: Vicente Zahartos Isidro

Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland

Instruments: percussion / guitar

Music: Irish folk / Spanish / flamenco / world fusion

HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG Click here for Hande Domac's storyClick here for Mosi Conde's storyClick here for Rachel McLeod's story


ListenÌýÌýListen (6'01) to 'Andalucian Rights of Man', performed by Vicente Zahartos Isidro and The Samsonelles with Vicente on percussion, Aidan Mulholland on guitar, Conor McCormack on trumpet, Chris Gorman on bass and John McKilduff on low whistle.

'Percussion is the heartbeat, the sound of stones on the beach, the whoosh of the waves in the sea or the swell of a storm'

How I came to this music:

I grew up in the Canary Islands where there's a huge connection with South America because of emigration back and forth. My grandfather on my mother's side worked in the export / import business in Cuba in the days before Castro. The house was full of musical instruments - clarinets, guitars, a piano and lutes.

Together with two friends I started playing guitar. We'd play lots of Spanish folk songs but we'd also play rumba and samba too - you know, a few pacey numbers to impress the girls. In time I got more and more interested in percussion and I now play congas, bongos and darbuka, the small Middle Eastern drum.

I studied philosophy at a university in the Canaries but during Franco's repressive regime of the 70's, all I wanted was to get out of Spain so I took off travelling. I lived in France, Portugal and Scotland. Eventually I ended up in Northern Ireland. I'd heard so much about this island of myths and legends and lots of mists. A friend of mine recommended me for a job at Queen's university so I grabbed the opportunity. I've been living here since. In fact I get the best of both worlds because I spend at least six months of the year back home in the Canaries or Barcelona or I might go travelling to Turkey. Every where I go, I always check out the music.

Here in Belfast I met up with Aidan Mulholland, a fiddler and flamenco guitarist. We started playing with a brilliant piper called John McKilduff. We've developed our own style of music that's a mixture of styles from all round the world including Latin, Irish and cajun.

Percussion for me is the best. It connects with the heartbeat and the noises that we hear all around us. It's the sound of stones on the beach, the whoosh of the waves in the sea or the swell of a storm. And you can simply play it with your hands

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