Born in Cardiff, Wales, Pino Palladino picks up guitar at age 14. Playing in a local band (Trapper), Palladino soon gives up his classical guitar studies and starts playing electric. When 17 he finally switches to bass, buys himself a fretless a year later and well, the rest is history, as they say.
1970s
Picture the late 1970s. Pino Palladino plays bass in local bands (funk,
r&b, reggae) and starts recording at local studios. He moves to
London at the age of 23 to play with ex-Squeeze keyboardist Jools
Holland's band The Millionaires,
with whom he tours the UK and the US. In the UK Jools Holland &
The Millionaires share the bill with a soul band called Q-tips whose
singer is Paul Young. Whilst on tour in N.Y. with Jools Holland, Palladino
buys himself a Musicman Stingray Fretless.
1980s
By the early '80s Pino Palladino is well on his way. He plays sessions
on fretless for Gary Numan, which led
to the 1982 album "I Assassin". After this an American tour
follows in 1983. That same year he records the legendary "No
Parlez" album with Paul Young,
which brings him world fame. Palladino joins Paul Young's band The
Royal Family and records and tours with them around the world
for five years. During this period he also has steamy musical affairs
with artists such as David Gilmour,
Pete Townshend, Don
Henley, Elton John, Joan
Armatrading, Eric Clapton,
Phil Collins and Chaka
Khan, to name just a few.
1990s
So we're talking the early 1990s now. We don't get to see much of
Palladino on stage these years. He mainly does studio work, except
for some live stuff with Pete
Townshend in '93 and Jeff Beck
in '95. During his session work Pino Palladino forms a rhythm section
with Manu Katché and Dominic
Miller and the three of them record with artists world-wide.
During
1999 Palladino, Katché and Miller record original material, which
leads to a band project called "The
Tweeters".
2000 to present
At the turn of the century, Pino Palladino is a member of a band called
"The Soultronics".
With them Palladino records D'Angelo's
Voodoo album in '99, which takes them on a tour through the US, Europe,
and South America in 2000. The Soultronics also feature Ahmir "?uestlove"
Thompson from The Roots on drums.
From playing and recording with D'Angelo, Palladino moves right on to projects with Erykah Badu, Common, and Roy Hargrove. Pino proves to be an inspired musician, not only playing bass and electric guitar, but writing and co-producing songs as well.
Early
in 2002 Pino Palladino was invited to play bass during the Party at
the Palace, a pop concert in honour of Queen Elizabeth's golden jubilee,
which Palladino gladly excepted. The band included drummer Phil Collins,
keyboardist Wix Wickins and guitarist Phil Palmer. The concert, which
was broadcasted live on June 3rd 2002 by the BBC, was a huge success.
It starred Dame Shirley Bassey, Bryan Adams, Annie Lennox, Ozzy Osbourne,
Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney
and many more.
Then at the end of June 2002 The Who's Ox John Entwistle suddenly died at the eve of The Who's US Tour, and Palladino accepted the difficult job to play bass for the duration of the tour.
Towards the the end of 2002 things settled down a bit. Pino played bass for Eric Clapton, Rhian Benson, Herbert Grönemeyer, Vikter Duplaix, and Rachel Fuller. Also he co-produced Talib Kweli's new album. And did you know Pino plays the bass solo at the beginning of the movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", about Motown's Funk Brothers?
2003 saw Pino Palladino playing bass, writing, and producing with and for people such as Edie Brickel, Dominic Miller, D'Angelo, Rhian Benson, Roy Har(d)gro(o)ve, Tony O'Malley, and also Steve Gadd, Russ Elavado, Ahmir Thompson, Boney James and Omar Hakim. He also did a project with IG Culture! From October until December Pino Palladino joined Simon and Garfunkel for the US leg of their "Old Friends" tour.
In
2004 Pino Palladino continued his project with IG Culture, toured
with "The Who",
produced the new Terri Walker album, worked on a new
JimJam album, had Martin Peterson of The Gallery
bass shop in London build an 8-string (yes, eight), played at the
Grammy's with John Mayer,
and to finish it off, Pino Palladino received the Outstanding Contribution
to Pop Music Award of the Wales Pop Factory
in his native Cardiff.
2005 was the year of the "John Mayer Trio, touring the US, resulting in the live album "Try!".
And this is where we kind of end up in the present of Palladino's musical fusion kitchen. No more drinks or tapas. Better let the man go and do what he does best: play bass and create music. But you can rest assured we keep an ear to the door, sleeping at his doorstep. So, check out the latest news in The Lounge of this website !
A (more or less) "complete" discography of Pino Palladino can be found in the Studio of this website.