DePedro

Jairo Zavala records his solo work under the name DePedro. Recognition came first in Spain through his founding and leadership of the leading 1990s rock bands Vacazul and 3000 Hombres.

Born in Barcelona to a Peruvian father and Spanish mother, Zavala absorbed early influences from the pre-WWII blues his grandparents favored and from the folk, pop, and Afrobeat records his father gathered while traveling through Latin America and Africa.

Even while active in other groups, he continued writing original songs. After those bands ended, Zavala established himself as a songwriter for and with additional artists, among them Amparanoia and Los Coronas. Calexico added “Don’t Leave Me Now,” the track he wrote for the former, to their repertoire; they then invited him to play guitar on their Spanish shows, an engagement that grew into the full European tour.

Joey Burns asked Zavala to join Calexico in Tucson, where the 2007 self-titled debut DePedro was recorded. The band participated in the sessions and has remained his studio collaborators ever since. The album merged Latin rock with Spanish flamenco, contemporary folk, and ambient electronica; its singles were “Como el Viento,” “La Memoria” (a cover of Jorge Ben’s “Comanche”), and Zavala’s own reading of “Don’t Leave Me Now.”

Zavala stayed in Tucson. The 2010 follow-up Nubes de Papel expanded the instrumental palette with both acoustic and electric elements plus horns; he sang in English and Spanish and included the instrumental “Tramuntana.” DePedro toured either completely solo or as an opening act for Calexico. La Increible Historia de un Hombre Bueno, issued in 2013, was tracked in Tucson, Paris, and Madrid. Besides Calexico, the sessions featured drummer Tony Allen, Nick Urata of Devotchka, Martin Wenk from Nada Surf, and Bernard Fanning of Powderfinger; the album produced the singles “Casualidades” and “Hombre Bueno.” After European and American tours, DePedro returned to the studio and released De Pasajero in 2016. The album stands as Zavala’s most wide-ranging survey of Pan American and Spanish rock. Its central theme is travel, reflected across eleven songs that reference journeys through Mexico, West Africa, the American desert, and elsewhere. Recorded in Tucson with Calexico, it also includes guest contributions from Gaby Moreno, Naim Love, Orkesta Mendoza, Devotchka’s Tom Hagerman, and Zavala’s countryman, rock en español icon Enrique Bunbury.