A Cuban musician in Istanbul, Yanssel Castellon

Istanbul is being filled with music each and every moment and no matter whether it is the daytime or the night you can feel the multicultural variety and feelings in the air and on every street corner in the city. 

There is always the potential to meet a musician from any culture in Istanbul, yet it is still surprising to encounter a big Latin Cuban Orchestra right in the city under the leadership of a talented musician from Cuba, Yanssel Castellon.

Castello finds inspiration in Istanbul and the reason he stays here is simply a story of love. 

Born in Havana, Castellon has roots with talented musicians in his family and he came up with his band Los Amigos using acoustic instruments to bring a traditional feeling of original Cuban music, though he also presents a very rich Latin music repertoire with his band in his shows too. 

Leading the one and only original Latin Cuban Orchestra in Turkey, he is passionate about bass and he believes that bass guitar gives a clear direction to others in the band too. I had a chance to get to know him and singer/bassist Castellon spoke about his very original love story which connects him to Istanbul. I also had a chance to ask him about how he described Cuban music and what was next for the band. Castellon also defined the inspiration he gets from Istanbul.

It has been almost five years since you came to Istanbul. How did you come up with a brand new story in Turkey? 

I had these proposals for some job opportunities in Turkey and Italy? Meanwhile one of my friends told me how Turkey's such a beautiful country and I took my chance on Turkey. Although the story starts with a career opportunity in Turkey, it goes further with a love story. I met ?lksen on a Latin night gig and...