Pino Palladino...once again...how sh*t hot is he?

[krysh]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1374683475' post='2151833']
Take this guy, Neil Jason. Plays a great groove, serves the song etc. Why no kudos?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbmv70uvJ8[/media]
[/quote]
he's not playing a p-bass.

[The Dark Lord]

[quote name='merello' timestamp='1364066615' post='2021609']
Naked admiration thread for no other reason than this hallowed portal allows me to do so.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjmOO7oRQT0[/media]
there are bits in this song that make me glad to enjoy and try and play the bass.

On a related note, I have a young man doing a gig in the school where I work who is playing and singing 'I don't need no doctor" this week. Privilege to accompany him.
[/quote]

I'm not real keen on this kind of bass playing. Yeah, he looks super proficient and all ..... but what we see here is a bass player being a backing artist for a guitarist. Not keen on that. I prefer the bass to be right up there and in your face - up there with the guitar and vocals as an equal partner ........ like Lemmy, JJ, Phil Lynott and Bruce Foxton (when he was in the The Jam).

He was good in Wherever I Lay My Hat Though ....... the bass was right up there with the lead vocal as the two equally most important instruments in that song y'see.

Edited August 11, 2013 by The Dark Lord

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1376227423' post='2170995']
IHe was good in Wherever I Lay My Hat Though ....... the bass was right up there with the lead vocal as the two equally most important instruments in that song y'see.
[/quote]
Ah, but "Wherever I Lay My Hat" was a cover version, and so, according to many people here , can be of no value at all.

[kevin_lindsay]

I remember as a 17 year ols seeing Pino playing bass for Jools Holland - New Years Eve 1981 supporting The Police in Edinburgh. I'd never seen anyone play bass with such dexterity before. It completely changed my perception of what a bass player coukd be.

Then seeing him playing fretless bass for Gary Numan and later on for Paul Young caused me to ditch my fretted bass and buy a fretless.

He's been a continual inspiration to me ever since. The fact that he's now one of my friends hasn't diminished my musical aadmiration for him. And, he's remained incredibly humble about his own playing, regardless of the incredibly high esteem he's held in by his oeers.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1374683156' post='2151829']
Agreed - but so have many, many others. Why is PP considered so exceptional? I am not slagging him off, just wondering why the cult of personality with this one player over 1,000 others of equal standing?

Not that it matters
[/quote]

I completely disagree with your assertion that there are thousands of players of equal standing to Pino Palladino . There are not . He has had a stellar career because he is player of exceptional taste and ability , and above all he has a great feel in his playing , regardless of whatever musical genre he is playing , Appreciation of Pino's talents is not a cult of personality . Of course there are a lot of other great players , but you can't fool all the people all the time , and Pino Palladino is the real deal and his sucess and enduring popularity is a result of his wonderful skills as a bass guitarist . Any suggestion otherwise is sophistry .

[Dingus]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1374664097' post='2151424']

If half of us had Steve Jordan (and, indeed, Mayer) to bounce off and played that often as a trio, we would probably sound that good.
[/quote]

No , you wouldn't .

[Dingus]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1374683475' post='2151833']
Take this guy, Neil Jason. Plays a great groove, serves the song etc. Why no kudos?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbmv70uvJ8[/media]
[/quote]

Neil Jason has had a very successful carreer as a celebrated session musician in New York for decades , so his talents have garnered some degree of acclaim , but the reason he isn't as widely regarded as Pino Palladino is because he lacks the same degree of flair and [i]panache[/i] that Pino has in his playing . Pino has a far more readily identifiable sound and approach , and it is a style that seems to appeal to bass players , record producers , other musicians and casual listeners a great deal . Populism is not something to be dismissive of in the world of popular music . Rather , it the most valuable of commodities . A case in point would be Neil Jason's playing on " Girls Just Want To Have Fun " or " Time After Time " by Cindy Lauper . It's far better than anything he did with The Brecker Brothers .

Edited August 11, 2013 by Dingus

[risingson]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376239256' post='2171182']
No , you wouldn't .
[/quote]

I was going to say the same thing. What's funny is that I have known some drummers that would have said the same thing about Steve Jordan, the kind of stuff getting bandied around in this thread like 'overrated' and the suggestion that anyone could do what Jordan could do on kit. They couldn't. Both him and Pino are truly unique on their instruments, replaceable doesn't come into it.

[Dingus]

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1376241808' post='2171211']
I was going to say the same thing. What's funny is that I have known some drummers that would have said the same thing about Steve Jordan, the kind of stuff getting bandied around in this thread like 'overrated' and the suggestion that anyone could do what Jordan could do on kit. They couldn't. Both him and Pino are truly unique on their instruments, replaceable doesn't come into it.
[/quote]

I remember reading an interview with Anthony Jackson back in 1990 and they asked him who he rated out of the current crop of bass players and he replied without hesitation that he regarded Pino as the best in mainstream pop music , and we all know that Anthony Jackson doesn't mince his words when it comes to his asessment of other bass players . I have loved Pino's playing since I saw him on Top Of The Pops with Gary Newman , and if you could go back thirty years to the summer of 1983 you would see the young Dingus sitting in his bedroom with his first fretless bass trying ( and failing , very , very badly ) to emulate Pino's playing with Paul Young and Nick Heyward at that time . Pino is a special player , and I will always be interested in what he does .

[ezbass]

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1376241808' post='2171211']
What's funny is that I have known some drummers that would have said the same thing about Steve Jordan, the kind of stuff getting bandied around in this thread like 'overrated' and the suggestion that anyone could do what Jordan could do on kit.
[/quote]The drummer in my band is bloody marvellous and can hold his own against many, many of what we would deem 'top' players (I'm very lucky and I know it). I trust his opinion on other drummers (his top 2 are Jeff Porcaro and Vinnie Collaiuta) and he rates Jordan very highly, especially his work on the cocktail kit he uses with John Mayer on the live DVD; that's good enough for me.

[risingson]

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1376244005' post='2171244']
The drummer in my band is bloody marvellous and can hold his own against many, many of what we would deem 'top' players (I'm very lucky and I know it). I trust his opinion on other drummers (his top 2 are Jeff Porcaro and Vinnie Collaiuta) and he rates Jordan very highly, especially his work on the cocktail kit he uses with John Mayer on the live DVD; that's good enough for me.
[/quote]

Yeh absolutely. It's why I said I've 'known' drummers as opposed to 'know' drummers. Usually the people who made the comments were guys who were over players or didn't understand the role of their instrument as much as they liked to make out and made the usual sweeping statements. Generally speaking I won't keep in close professional contact with them.

Music isn't a competition. I had a competitive element to me when I was younger trying to learn against other bass players throughout school and university perhaps but it was instinctive and an attempt by me to get work and get noticed. I never tried to outplay other people as it just wasn't my thing, often I probably couldn't either if they were hugely technical players. But the guys that do the best job of playing in bands (at least the kind of music that I like) are often the ones that downplay their own importance and work for the benefit of the music. Pino and Jordan definitely fall into this category, in fact they school people on it.

Steve Jordan's kit sound is sublime. Where there are drummers like Colaiuta who have made names for themselves by being precision sharp and very clean, Jordan has made a conscious effort to bridge that gap between great R&B drumming and out and out rock, a minimal kit layout and a really edgy, hard style of playing that makes him kind of a breath of fresh air in the drumming world IMO, although I know he's capable of so much more. The same applies to Abe Laboriel Jr. too.

[ezbass]

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1376249575' post='2171356']
Music isn't a competition.
[/quote]Wise words.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1376249575' post='2171356']
The same applies to Abe Laboriel Jr. too.
[/quote]I love Abe, he's an absolute monster (but in good way).

[Bilbo]

I think it is because he is from Cardiff and we all played like that in Cardiff at the time.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1376312234' post='2171942']
I think it is because he is from Cardiff and we all played like that in Cardiff at the time.
[/quote]

There do seem to be a lot of bass players from Cardiff . It's a bass playing "hot spot ". Pino still lives there , apparently .

[chardbass]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1376312234' post='2171942']
I think it is because he is from Cardiff and we all played like that in Cardiff at the time.
[/quote]

Ha ha ha ha.

[cloudburst]

Pino has always been my favourite player. And, unfashionable as it may be, it's his fretless playing that I love.

Now, his playing alone (on Call Me, Shoot Down The Moon, NY Minute, Playhouse, Wish It Would Rain Down, Do You Remember etc etc) makes my jaw go slack.

But what makes my jaw actually hang open is when I consider that, without formal theory training and whatnot, he had the maturity, at the tender age of 26, after playing bass for only 9 years, to engineer classical Stravinsky ideas into a pop song - Wherever I lay My Hat.

It takes a particular type of artistic mind to do that. Whoever reckoned there are thousands like Pino Palladino - I think not.

CB

[lowregisterhead]

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1378758209' post='2204422']
Pino has always been my favourite player. And, unfashionable as it may be, it's his fretless playing that I love.

Now, his playing alone (on Call Me, Shoot Down The Moon, NY Minute, Playhouse, Wish It Would Rain Down, Do You Remember etc etc) makes my jaw go slack.

But what makes my jaw actually hang open is when I consider that, without formal theory training and whatnot, he had the maturity, at the tender age of 26, after playing bass for only 9 years, to engineer classical Stravinsky ideas into a pop song - Wherever I lay My Hat.

It takes a particular type of artistic mind to do that. Whoever reckoned there are thousands like Pino Palladino - I think not.

CB
[/quote]

Seconded.

[cloudburst]

Just been giving my fretless Sterling and OC-2 a bit of a workout over the last couple of days, learning PIno's part in Phil Collins' "I Wish It Would Rain Down".

Thoughts:
- How the heck does he intone so well so consistently. I know he reckons he doesn't. But he does.
- How does he think this stuff up???
- Has anyone else noticed that, even when you learn some of his parts, that plenty of his fills tend to be different from each other, so whilst some of the part forms a repeatable pattern, it's really hard to remember which fill goes where. And some of said fills are real finger twisters...
- ...which leads me to ask again...if they are such finger twisters, how does he come up with them
- Doh.
- And has anyone noticed the guy who works at Queen St station in Glasgow all the time and is the spit for a young Pino? So even when I'm not playing bass, I can still get reminded how s**t I am.

CB

[tedmanzie]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376323115' post='2172119']
There do seem to be a lot of bass players from Cardiff . It's a bass playing "hot spot ". Pino still lives there , apparently .
[/quote]
Someone told me his brother runs a pizza restaurant there called 'Palladinos'?
Apparently he was (is?) a drummer.
I bet he makes a very funky pizza.

[kevin_lindsay]

Marc runs this pizzeria in Whitchurch Village - http://www.pizzeriavillaggio.co.uk/

and yes, he's a drummer. They feature live music, often with Marc playing

Edited September 15, 2013 by kevin_lindsay

[flyfisher]

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1378758209' post='2204422']
Pino has always been my favourite player. And, unfashionable as it may be, it's his fretless playing that I love.

Now, his playing alone (on Call Me, Shoot Down The Moon, NY Minute, Playhouse, Wish It Would Rain Down, Do You Remember etc etc) makes my jaw go slack.

But what makes my jaw actually hang open is when I consider that, without formal theory training and whatnot, he had the maturity, at the tender age of 26, after playing bass for only 9 years, to engineer classical Stravinsky ideas into a pop song - Wherever I lay My Hat.

It takes a particular type of artistic mind to do that. Whoever reckoned there are thousands like Pino Palladino - I think not.
[/quote]

That's an interesting point. I've often wondered the same thing about Bakithi Kumalo.

Perhaps we could all play anything with enough practice (the 10,000 hours thing?) but could we all become as inventive?

[Dingus]

. That was Pino's Mum and Dad's restaurant but they must have retired now . I've never been myself , but I know people that have and the food there is meant to be excellent . It's in a nice part of Cardiff, too .

[Owen]

[quote name='cloudburst' timestamp='1378758209' post='2204422']
But what makes my jaw actually hang open is when I consider that, without formal theory training and whatnot, he had the maturity, at the tender age of 26, after playing bass for only 9 years, to engineer classical Stravinsky ideas into a pop song - Wherever I lay My Hat.

It takes a particular type of artistic mind to do that. Whoever reckoned there are thousands like Pino Palladino - I think not.
[/quote]

To be fair, and I love Pino as much as anyone, but what he is playing there - although a quote from The Rite of Spring - is more than likely to be a quote of Jaco quoting Stravinsky. I have been listening to all of them for decades and only recently made the conection.

http://tomkenrick.wordpress.com/category/jaco-pastorius/

[redstriper]

But where did [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Stravinsky nick it from?[/font][/color]

[Dingus]

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1379286830' post='2210966']
But where did [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Stravinsky nick it from?[/font][/color]
[/quote]

He probably nicked it from Pino's mum and dad's restaurant...