Professional guitarist and composer from Argentina based in New York City. Recorded or performed with renowned reggae artists: Jesse Royal, Dexta Daps, Busy Signal, Hector "Roots" Lewis and Dre Island. I have 20 years of experience performing, recording, co-writing in a wide variety of genres.

Working session Musician, Songwriter and Blues Guitarist.

Pedro Velasco is a London-based guitarist who specialises in improvised music. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he began playing piano at age nine and, inspired by the Brazilian music he was surrounded by at home, picked up a guitar at age 12. Under the tutelage of renowned Portuguese guitarist Mario Delgado, he began turning to the sounds of jazz and improvised music. He moved to London in 2003 to study at Middlesex University with Nicki Isles, Chris Batchelor and Stuart Hall and in 2007 he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Music (Jazz Performance).

He now performs not only on guitar, but on other string instruments as well, including double bass, portuguese guitar and oud, playing prolifically across London and the UK, and he’s also toured Europe with the free-improv group, Splatter. He composes original material for his own ensembles Machimbombo, Akimbo and the Pedro Velasco Trio and continues to explore other styles of music that champion interaction and personal expression.

‘’The guitar of our fellow countryman, Pedro Velasco, fills every corner of the album with a filigree ambience that superficially appears understated, but is truly assertive.’’ – Paulo Chagas review of Splatter’s album Cloudseed – Jazz.pt

‘’The guitar sounds ever more distant, captured within some far-off memory where music that might once have been is the music of the future.’’ – Luca Pagani’s review of Splatter’s album Scraffiti – allaboutjazz.com

Bassie (Gregory Jackson) has rocked clubs, concert halls, and sold-out stadiums as touring bassist for multi-Grammy winning reggae legend, Burning Spear (a.k.a. Winston Rodney).  He’s also written for everyone from Amy Winehouse (platinum album Frank? Yeah, his name’s on that) and Leela James to Simply Red and Snoop Dogg. And Source magazine nominated him for “Best Remix” for his work with Dead Prez featuring Jay-Z.

Bassie, hailing from Yorktown Heights, New York, owes his “bassic” prowess to the classical bass violin lessons he had as a wee one with Dr. Arthur Davis. After an childhood and adolescence of playing with national and international symphonies, Bassie studied went to university. And because he liked it so much, he went back for more university when he was done with the first one. Then he got what many parents and grandparents call a “real job.”

But…

“The best thing I’d ever done for my career was making a list of things I would do if money weren’t a factor. Then I did them. It was scary to give up a ‘real job’ that paid the bills, but it’s also scary to not follow your dreams. I followed my dreams and I couldn’t have made a better decision.”


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