Ensemble Member Bios

VINCE DELGADO is a master percussionist and composer who has played music for over 71 years. He was an aspiring Jazz drummer at the age of 11 and played swing music in Jr. High School and High School . At the age of 18 he studied Japanese classical music for five years. In 1965 he began studying North Indian Classical music on the Tabla and studied for 13 years. He helped establish and became the first director of the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1968. He has been playing traditional Middle Eastern Music for 58 years as well as being featured on numerous recordings as a percussionist. He has performed in Istanbul, Paris, London, Mumbai, Bogota, Mexico City and other cities around the world with many luminaries including Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, Necati Çelik, Halil Karaduman, John McLaughlin, Paul Winter Consort, Mickey Hart, Harry Partch, Simon Shaheen, and Larry Vuckovich. He has been studying and playing the Kanoun, a 78 stringed Middle Eastern zither, since 2005, and continues to play with his mostly Latin Jazz Trio

CORALIE RUSSO has been playing and performing Egyptian, Turkish, Greek, Lebanese, Armenian, Syrian and Persian Music on the Oud, an 11-stringed lute, for 35 years. She has studied with master musicians John Belizekjian, Necati Çelik, Georges Lammam and Haig Manookian. She has performed with Jazayer, Coral Rose, Aywah Dance Company and the Gypsy Caravan and currently plays with Vince Delgado’s Mid-East Tapestry Ensemble and other local Mid-Eastern traditional ensembles, as well as Larry Vuckovich’s Blue Balkan and Crosswinds Jazz ensembles. She has extensively studied dance in the Flamenco and Middle Eastern traditions.

TOM SHADER is an acoustic bass player raised in the Detroit area where he studied violin, viola, cello, string bass, and voice. Tom has had the privilege of performing with many fine musicians, including Steve Allen, Henry Mancini, and Tommy Newsome. In addition to being a mainstay at many North Bay and San Francisco jazz clubs, Tom has appeared at some of the area’s popular jazz festivals, including Russian River, Cotati, Benicia, Monterey, Mammoth Lakes, Morro Bay, and the Sacramento Jubilee. His mid-east bass work can be heard on numerous CD recordings. He has been playing acoustic bass in the Mid-East genre for 30 years and has played and recorded with the esteemed Jazayer ensemble with Vince Delgado, Mimi Spencer and DeviJa Delgado Croll.

RAMI ZIADEH was born in Kuwait and raised in Jordan, where he began playing Arabic Tabla at the age of 4, and by 9 was playing in a semi-professional capacity. At 15 he moved to the US and continued his music by studying drums with Roy Burns and Tony Williams, and tabla with Sri Swapan Chauduri, and later studied music at the California Institute of the Arts. His unique style combines Middle Eastern techniques with Jazz and Flamenco rhythms. He has performed with Shabaz/Ali Khan, guitarists Mark Taylor and David Correa, Desert Wind Middle Eastern fusion ensemble, Flamenco-jazz pianist Alex Conde, and with jazz bassist Jeff Denson and Pharoah Sanders for the Alonzo King Ballet. He has accompanied flamenco dance artists La Tania, La Fibi, and other Bay Area flamenco and Middle Eastern artists. Currently he is studying Classical Hindustani Vocals with Pundit Dr. Laxmi G. Tewari and exploring the Americana / Bluegrass / Acoustic genre by recording and performing with the group The Pine Needles.