Beledo, born in Montevideo, Uruguay, now makes his home in New York, where he works as a guitarist, pianist, and composer. A figure of mythic standing in his native land since adolescence, his style draws on the Uruguayan forms of triste, milonga, chimarrita, and candombe, alongside Spanish flamenco, progressive jazz, world fusion, and classical traditions.
Jose Pedro Beledo first sat at the piano at age six. The British Invasion era sparked his passion for the guitar, an instrument at which he proved immediately adept. While still in his teens he fronted rock groups and briefly joined the Uruguayan supergroup Dias de Blues. In the 1970s the jazz-rock fusion movement captured his attention; he launched the bands Maytreya and, most notably, Siddhartha, a near-legendary Uruguayan prog and jazz-rock ensemble. At the University School of Music in Uruguay he studied classical and jazz guitar, piano, and composition, and he helped establish the University Conservatory Jazz Quartet.
Following his graduation in the 1980s, Beledo embarked on a career as a session and touring musician. He issued his debut albums, Escape and El Cefiro, mid-decade. Session work followed with Pedro Aznar, Miguel Mateos, and Ruben Rada, and he contributed to Jaime Roos’ landmark album Mediocampo. He also supplied string arrangements for recordings by Miguel Cantilo and David Lebron. In the early 1990s he relocated to New York and completed UCLA’s Certified Program for Film Scoring. Upon finishing the program he co-produced the Warner Bros. film soundtrack Nothing But Trouble alongside Peter Kater. In 1996 his touring experience earned him the guitar chair in the Tropical Tribute to the Beatles, a production that included Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, and Tito Nieves.
During the 21st century Beledo has appeared on albums by Jorge Alfano’s Akonagua, Alma y Vida, Manolo Badrena, and numerous others. He has also issued his own boundary-crossing projects, among them the world-fusion recording Lejanas Serranías and the Latin jazz/classical hybrid Desde la Torre. In 2007 he released the inventive Montevideo Jazz Dreams, which featured Randy Brecker and Stefon Harris. While leading his New York-based band Stratosphere, Beledo co-founded the progressive fusion quartet the Avengers, whose members include Adam Holzman, Lincoln Goines, and Kim Plainfield. Their first album, the widely praised On a Mission, appeared in 2012, reached various jazz charts in Europe and South America, and prompted tours of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Beledo joined New York’s MoonJune Records roster in 2013. That same year he collaborated with the Indonesian world jazz fusion ensemble simakDialog and performed in duo format with Indonesian guitarist Dewa Budjana on the latter’s American tour. His MoonJune debut, Dreamland Mechanism, surfaced in spring 2016; on the date he played guitar, keyboards, violin, and bass, supported by a trio that included Goines and drummer Gary Husband, along with additional guest musicians.
