Pino Palladino is a Welsh-born bassist, composer, and producer of Italian ancestry. Since beginning his professional career in the 1980s, he has become one of the most prolific and sought-after session bassists in most genres: his credits appear on more than 600 (and still counting) recordings. His technique was initially developed on a fretless Music Man StingRay bass, and later expanded to include fretted Fender Precision, six- and eight-string basses, and custom-made instruments.
Palladino's playing style is notable for its addition of chords and lead lines, and he adds counter-melodies to the record-industry standard of playing rhythmically pulsed, low-end notes. During the '80s he played on decade-defining albums by
Gary Numan,
Don Henley,
Tears for Fears, and
Phil Collins. During the '90s, his name graced albums and he played on tours with
Melissa Etheridge,
Joan Armatrading,
Jeff Beck, and
Eric Clapton. After appearing on
D'Angelo's
Voodoo in 2000,
Palladino's neo-soul approach was noted and featured on recordings by
Erykah Badu,
Common,
Bilal, and
Jose James, to name just a few. In 2006
Palladino began a decade of touring with
the Who and appeared on both of their later studio outings. He also played on
Nine Inch Nails'
Hesitation Marks and its tour in 2013, and played extensively as a member of
John Mayer's trio while working with
D'Angelo on Black Messiah. In 2018, his playing appeared on simultaneously charting albums by
Keith Urban,
John Legend,
Ed Sheeran, and
Harry Styles. In 2021, he released
Notes with Attachments, his first solo album, recorded in collaboration with producer/multi-instrumentalist
Blake Mills.
Palladino was born in Cardiff, Wales to a Welsh mother and an Italian father. Deeply influenced by Motown,
Led Zeppelin, and jazz, he began playing classical guitar at age 14 but switched to bass at 17. He bought his first fretless bass at 18, playing mostly R&B, funk, and reggae, inspired by his primary -- and lasting -- influences including
James Jamerson,
Danny Thompson, and
Norman Watt-Roy. He also adapted techniques and tricks from bassists he admired including
Jaco Pastorius,
Larry Graham, Boosty Collins, and
Michael Henderson. For a short time, he played with singer Geraint Griffiths in Welsh indie folk band Hogia'r Docia, and issued a pair of singles. After moving to London, he auditioned for Jools Holland & His Millionaires and won a studio gig playing on their self-titled 1981 album.
Gary Numan heard
Palladino's fretless approach while prepping his own demos and hired him to play bass on 1982's
I, Assassin. Producer, engineer, arranger, and
Ian Dury & the Blockheads' member
Laurie Latham worked on the
Numan sessions. Impressed by
Palladino's playing,
Latham hired him to back Paul Young on the 1982 album
No Parlez. Its charting singles were all covers and included
Marvin Gaye's "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home),"
Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and
Waylon Jennings' "Love of the Common People."
Palladino joined Young's touring band but continued to play recording sessions with many artists. In 1984, he traveled to Los Angeles to play on
Don Henley's smash album
Building the Perfect Beast, and won a spot playing on
Pink Floyd guitarist
David Gilmour's solo outing
About Face. A year later,
Palladino was remarkably busy, playing with Young,
Go West,
the Dream Academy,
Pete Townshend, and
Elton John. By 1988, he was also a session bassist with
Chaka Khan and
Joan Armatrading. In 1989, he began to make a name for himself critically as he appeared on blockbuster recordings that included
Henley's
End of the Innocence,
Phil Collins'
...But Seriously, and
Tears for Fears'
The Seeds of Love.
Palladino also recorded and toured with
Kirsty MacColl and joined
Paul Rodgers' band
the Law, playing in the rhythm section alongside drummer
Small Faces/
Who drummer
Kenney Jones; they issued a self-titled debut album in 1991.
Palladino was also experimenting with new techniques and instruments. He began alternating between fretless bass and fretted four- and six-string basses, adding a different depth and dimension to his already individual sound. (That evolution eventually resulted in endorsement offers and signature custom-made basses from various instrument manufacturers.) His experimentation also resulted in work with a wider variety of artists including
Eric Clapton,
Jeff Beck, and
Melissa Etheridge (her historic 1993 album
Yes I Am prominently featured his bass playing). At the same time,
Palladino was working in-studio with jazz drummer
Manu Katché, pop singer
Michael McDonald, and French nouvelle chanson star
Laurent Voulzy.
1994 proved an important year for
Palladino. He worked with
Bob James for the first time on Restless, with
Bryan Ferry on
Mamouna,
Al Di Meola on
Orange and Blue, and most notably on
Seal's iconic self-titled debut album. The bassist spent the next several years branching out into theatrical pop with composer
Michael Kamen, spacy prog with Rick Wright, jazz with
Chris Botti and
John McLauglin, and highly stylized pop with
Peter Cetera. In 1997, at
Clapton's suggestion,
Palladino was hired as a session player for
B.B. King's star-studded duets album
Deuces Wild. One of the selections he played on was the NOLA R&B standard "Ain't Nobody Home" with old friend and fellow session player
Steve Jordan on drums and with horns arranged by the legendary
Wardell Quezergue.
King's duet partner on the track was
D'Angelo, who was knocked out by
Palladino's fluid, meaty, emotional neo-soul approach. In a year full of other high-profile sessions with
Phil Manzanera,
Ofra Haza, and
Celine Dion, his appearance on
Deuces Wild resulted in
D'Angelo asking him to participate in the sessions for his long-incubated second album,
Voodoo, which eventually saw the light of day in 2000 and won a Grammy the following year.
Palladino established new relationships during those sessions; he played alongside drummer Ahmir Thompson (aka
Questlove) and trumpeter
Roy Hargrove -- both would become future collaborators.
Palladino's playing deeply moved Thompson, who recommended him to his peers.
Palladino went straight from those sessions to
Erykah Badu's for
Mama's Gun, using many of the same players. He also played on records by
De La Soul,
Musiq Soulchild,
Common, and
Richard Ashcroft.
Palladino's career was in full bloom. Not only had he retained his working relationships with almost everyone from the past, but he was forming new ones at a fast pace.
Femi Kuti had heard the
Voodoo sessions and hired him for
Fight to Win; he was also drafted by producer
Robert Glasper to play on
Bilal Oliver's seminal debut
1st Born Second, and contributed to
Nikka Costa's
Everybody Got Their Something and
Rod Stewart's
Human. In 2002,
Terry Callier made a comeback after decades away and chose
Palladino as his bassist for the
4Hero-produced
Speak Your Peace.
Who bassist
John Entwistle died just two days before the beginning of a U.S. tour in 2002.
Townshend called
Palladino and he joined the touring band, playing with them for 14 years.
In 2003 the
Voodoo sessions kept on impressing musicians, and
Hargrove hired
Palladino to play in his jazz-funk outfit RH Factor for the album
Hard Groove. He also played on
Anthony Hamilton's
Comin' from Where I'm From and on
Simon & Garfunkel's live reunion
Old Friends. A year later
Palladino worked with
Clapton on his Robert Johnson tribute
Me and Mr. Johnson. Over the next two years, he did session work, but was on the road far more. In January 2005 session drummer and old friend
Steve Jordan (who also appeared on
King's
Deuces Wild and
Voodoo) recommended
Palladino to
John Mayer as a replacement for bassist
Willie Weeks, who couldn't make the gig at Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope. Their chemistry worked so well that they toured together as the John Mayer Trio and recorded
Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert. In 2006
Palladino played on
Clapton and
J.J. Cale's
Road to Escondido and on their tour; he also worked the road with
Jeff Beck, played on
Paul Simon's hit
Surprise, and on
Endless Wire,
the Who's first studio album in a quarter-century.
Over the next few years
Palladino worked extensively with
Mayer, appearing on his third and fourth studio albums,
Continuum and
Battle Studies. He also played on
Seal's second album, worked with
Katché's
ECM studio band, played on
CeeLo Green's
The Lady Killer, and, on the indie side, with U.K. acts
the Herbaliser and electro-hip-hop progenitor
IG Culture.
Palladino managed to find time to form a live trio with drummer Simon Phillips and keyboardist Phillipe Saisse. In January of 2011, he re-entered the studio with
D'Angelo to finish tracking his third album, The Black Messiah, though it didn't appear for another three years.
In 2012 and 2013,
Palladino was on the road almost constantly. He did find time for some studio recording and guested on the
Elvis Costello &
the Roots collaboration
Wise Up Ghost & Other Songs; he played on and co-produced
Jose James'
No Beginning No End, appeared on
Nine Inch Nails'
Hesitation Marks, and joined the band on tour before returning to work with
the Who. The following year,
Palladino played with
Keith Richards on
Crosseyed Heart and was credited with appearances on the restored and once-thought-apocryphal
The Diary of J Dilla from recordings made during the early 2000s.
Palladino also marked his first collaboration with country star
Keith Urban on
Ripcord, and played on saxophonist
Markus Strickland's Blue Note debut,
Nihil Novi, and on
John Legend's
Darkness and Light.
In 2017,
Palladino spent so much time in recording studios he could have used them as mailing addresses. His list of album and credits for the year include
Katy Perry,
Mayer,
Ed Sheeran,
Perfume Genius,
St. Vincent, and jazzman
Keyon Harrold. He spent 2018 the same way, working on
Graffiti U with
Urban,
Steve Perry's comeback album Traces,
James'
Bill Withers tribute
Lean on Me,
Bettye Lavette's
Things Have Changed,
Chris Dave & the Drumhedz, and on Beninese jazz guitar great
Lionel Loueke's
The Journey.
Palladino also began working with
Harry Styles, appearing prominently on 2019's
Watermelon Sugar. He resumed his working relationship with
the Who, not to tour but to play on their studio outing
Who and on studio dates with
Robbie Robertson and
Jacob Collier.
Though 2020 was marked by the isolation of the global COVID-19 pandemic,
Palladino doggedly kept working. He added bass tracks to albums by
Josh Groban,
Margo Price, and
Urban among others. Most importantly, he began developing and recording his debut solo album with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist
Blake Mills. The set evolved from the bassist playing
Mills his ideas and waiting for his musical reaction. As the session process evolved over the next several months,
Palladino's ideas and
Mills' layered responses resulted in a full collaboration. The sessions also included contributions from
Strickland,
Dave,
Andrew Bird,
Larry Goldings,
Ted Poor,
Rob Moose, and
Sam Gendel. The finished eight-track instrumental set was titled
Notes with Attachments and released in March 2021. ~ Thom Jurek