Pino Palladino
Palladino playing in Phillips Saisse Palladino (22 November 2009)
Background information
Birth name	Pino Palladino
Born	October 1957 (age 54) Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, soul, blues-rock, funk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Bass, fretless bass, guitar
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Verve, Atlantic
Associated acts	The Who, John Mayer Trio, The RH Factor, The Law, Jools Holland, Paul Young, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Richard Ashcroft, D'Angelo, Joe Walsh, Hank Marvin, Simon & Garfunkel, Erykah Badu
Notable instruments
Pino Palladino Signature Fender Precision Bass Fender Jaguar Bass Music Man StingRay Fretless Bass

Pino Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh bass guitarist who gained fame playing primarily rock and roll, blues rock, and rhythm and blues music, although he has been lauded for his ability to play most genres of popular music, including jazz, neo soul, and funk. His career has spanned several ensembles, including the John Mayer Trio and The RH Factor, a band mixing elements of soul, jazz and R&B, which he formed with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove. He was also Pete Townshend's and Roger Daltrey's first choice to fill the position left by John Entwistle as the bassist for The Who. Adding to an eclectic grasp and melodic approach on his instrument, he has become one of the most sought-after session players on the bass and has played on a large number of recordings by some of the world's most successful entertainers, in part, by mastering a variety of techniques on both his late 1970s fretless Music Man StingRay bass guitar and, later in his career, adding fretted Fender Precision and Jaguar basses. His playing has earned him custom instruments bearing his name.^[1]

Career[link]

Born in Cardiff to a family with Italian ancestry, Pino Palladino began playing the electric guitar at age 14. By 17 he decided to play the bass guitar, and bought his first fretless bass one year later, playing mostly R&B, funk, and reggae within a rock and roll backbeat.^[2] His first professional gig, at age 20, was at a local television station in Cardiff, where he began playing in 1978. That same year he joined Jools Holland's band and is credited on Holland's album, Jools Holland and His Millionaires. Touring with Holland to support the album gave him the opportunity to purchase his own Music Man StingRay Fretless Bass.^[2] While Holland was touring with another new band, the Q-Tips, its frontman, Paul Young became acquainted with Palladino and a year later offered him a place in Young's own backing band.

Palladino was featured on Gary Numan's 1982 album I, Assassin, in which his fretless bass playing made a prominent contribution to the overall sound of the album. He went on to play fretless bass with a healthy number of high-profile artists that include David Gilmour, Tears for Fears, Pete Townshend, Peter Gabriel, Joan Armatrading, Phil Collins, Chaka Khan and Don Henley.^[2][3]

After Paul Young landed his own solo contract in 1982, Palladino was brought in as part of his backing band "The Royal Family" resulting in noticeable chart success with the No Parlez album,^[2] and major hit singles both in the UK and Europe. Examples of Young's newfound success were the band's cover of the Marvin Gaye classic Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home), which reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart for three weeks in summer of 1983, and Love of the Common People. Palladino toured extensively at this time with Paul Young, remaining in the band for five years. 1983 additionally proved to be the year of another ensemble featuring Palladino, Paul Rodgers (formerly of Bad Company), drummer Kenney Jones, along with a rotating cast of other celebrity performers. The band only released one album through Atlantic, The Law, although there were enough out-takes that another bootleg-styled album followed in 1991. Sales were unremarkable, despite the names of those who recorded on the album.^[1]

Throughout the 1980s Palladino was noted for his R&B roots on the fretless bass, even when supporting pop and rock heavy performers. One reviewer from Bass Player magazine points to Paul Young’s cover of the Bobby Womack/ Rufus tune Stop On By (on 1990’s Other Voices), with its "pre-hip-hop, swung funk groove" as the precursor to Palladino's later neo-soul focus.^[4]

1990s[link]

Changes in instrument[link]

Palladino with The Who, Philadelphia PA, 2008

In the 1990s, Palladino began to alternate between the sounds achieved in playing the fretless bass to one with frets, as well as the 4-string and 6-string bass. At the time, he was well known within the industry for his fretless bass sound. However, now, depending on which artist he was supporting, and the song to be played, he began gravitating towards fretted bass. He was maturing as a musician, and played with artists as diverse as Melissa Etheridge, Richard Wright, Sir Elton John and Eric Clapton. Also in 1991 he joined Paul Rodgers (of Free, Queen+ Paul Rodgers, and Bad Company fame) to form the band The Law. In the mid-1990s, Palladino played bass for The London Metropolitan orchestra during their recording of An American Symphony, soundtrack for the movie Mr Holland's Opus.

From 1991 to 1996, he joined Manu Katché to form Stephan Eicher's rhythm section on three albums : Engelberg (1991), Carcassonne (1993) and 1000 vies (1996).

Palladino supported Phil Collins, as a member of the house band for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, which played with Sir Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, and Tony Bennett, among other notable performers. He later wrote that he felt privileged to have been amongst the others on stage in such an event.

In 1999, he began working with Richard Ashcroft, of The Verve, during the recording sessions of Ashcroft's debut solo album, Alone With Everybody.^[5] Richard proved to be mightily impressed by Pino's natural bass playing ability;^[6]

Pino also joined Ashcroft's touring band for the singer's first major solo outing throughout 2000.^[7]

Neo soul[link]

By the mid- 1990s, Palladino had established himself as a busy, highly desirable bassist and a studio worker in many genres, but finally became visible to those artists who played largely left of center, and demand for his session playing grew within a different quarter. Palladino began moving from blues-rock toward neo soul projects. Palladino and Steve Jordan found themselves performing on the same session for B.B. King’s 1997 duets CD Deuces Wild. It was the first time soul singer D'Angelo first heard Palladino, who had just switched from a signature sound fretless bass sound to that of performing with fretted basses. The result was an invitation to «use Pino’s big, behind-the-beat bass to help cast a neo-soul spell on his Grammy Award-winning Voodoo album».^[8] It would not be his first uncredited Grammy performance.

As the word spread throughout the genre, Palladino found an increasing demand within the neo-soul genre. Examples of his bass work in this genre (in addition to D'Angelo) includes Mama's Gun, and Penitentiary Philosophy found on Erykah Badu’s 2000 CD.^[4] Other albums using Pino's sound include 1st Born Second for Bilal, Like Water for Chocolate and Electric Circus for Common. Palladino has been described by Steve Jordan, who got his own professional start playing the drums for Stevie Wonder, as having a "deep funk" side and a "melodic" side. Palladino admits that «Of all my influences, I would say what’s always in the back of my mind is early Stevie Wonder, like Talking Book and Innervisions; that music is really in my blood.»^[9]

2000s[link]

The Who[link]

Palladino, Pete Townshend, and Roger Daltrey from The Who, 2004

Following the death of The Who's bassist John Entwistle the night before the band were to kick off their first tour in two years, Palladino was their first choice to become the band's full-time touring bass guitarist, and by 2006, he was invited to join the remaining original band members in recording their first album in twenty-four years. Pete Townshend, the band's composer, recorded the bassline on the majority of the songs to get the effect he himself wanted, with Palladino doing so on the other six of them. Released in October 2006, the album was named Endless Wire.

Palladino also played with The Who at the Super Bowl XLIV half-time show, in February 2010, alongside other backing artists: Simon Townshend on guitar, Zak Starkey, drums and percussion, and John "Rabbit" Bundrick, on keyboard instruments.

Paul Simon[link]

In 2003, Palladino intended to go down to see his old friend Paul Simon and meet Brian Eno for the first time. He was asked to record with them, and had to borrow a bass guitar to play. The result was that he played with Simon and Garfunkel on their Old Friends reunion tour and in an interview with Bass Player Magazine he mentions drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Jamey Haddad "had laid down some great grooves for me to add bass". He had kept the recordings, and by the time that he appeared on the Old Friends: Live on Stage CD and DVD from the tour, he was able to use some of the material.^[9] He played on Paul Simon's 2006 release, Surprise.

Other appearances[link]

Palladino has toured in the backing band for Joe Walsh. In 2004 he appeared to be playing with Gary Moore at the Wembley Arena.

Emergence of the John Mayer Trio[link]

Left to Right: Steve Jordan, John Mayer, and Pino Palladino

Palladino met Steve Jordan in the mid-1980s while both were working as session players on many occasions, which blossomed into a friendship. Jordan credits Palladino's apparent ability to "feel" changes in music, through melodies, basslines, and an embrace of genres of nearly every kind. According to Jordan, he'd planned to meet up with John Mayer and Willie Weeks in January, 2005 to perform a benefit concert on a NBC sponsored telethon Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope to raise funds and public awareness benefiting victims in the aftermath of the tsunami that struck southeast Asia. Weeks was unable to make the performance, and Jordan suggested Palladino, who had heard some of Mayer's work, and was willing to come. Beginning a set that included the Jimi Hendrix classic, "Bold as Love", the three found a chemistry together and set about their schedules to record a CD and a tour as a power trio.^[9] They released the album Try!, on 22 November 2005. The eleven-track live album includes cover songs, such as Jimi Hendrix's "Wait Until Tomorrow" and "I Got A Woman" by Ray Charles, two songs from Mayer's release Heavier Things, as well as new songs written by Mayer. In addition, Mayer, Palladino, and Jordan are credited as songwriters on three songs on the album: "Good Love Is On The Way", "Vultures", and "Try!".^[1] Along with John Mayer on guitar and vocals, and Steve Jordan on drums, Palladino rounded out the outfit, touring and recording as the bass guitarist of the John Mayer Trio, and on Mayer's third album Continuum.

Influences on bass guitar[link]

Influences for Palladino for bass guitar include The Shadows Jet Harris; Motown bassist James Jamerson; Stevie Wonder’s keyboard-bass, jazz innovator Jaco Pastorius; British folk/rock upright bassist Danny Thompson; Norman Watt-Roy (of Ian Dury & the Blockheads); Larry Graham; Michael Henderson; Bootsy Collins; Paul Jackson; Anthony Jackson; Doug Rauch (of Carly Simon and Santana), and Billy Cobham.^[9]

Technique[link]

Pino Palladino is noted for his use of the fretless bass in many 1980s chart records. While it was typical for a bass guitar in a commercial track to have a rather generic sound and stay "playing the low notes" Palladino preferred a different sound (combining fretless tone with an octave effect) and basslines that frequently added chords, lead lines and counter melodies in the higher range of the instrument as opposed to simply the afformentioned "low notes". Typical of this style was his playing on Paul Young's biggest chart hits, in particular his bass solo on Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home). His equipment at that time included a fretless Music Man StingRay Bass 1979 and Boss Octave pedal (OC-2).

Pino Palladino signature model[link]

The Fender Pino Palladino Signature Precision Bass is modelled after two of Pino's Fender Precision Basses. The body featuring faded fiesta red paint over desert sand paint is based on Pino's 1961 Precision Bass while the neck shape and round-lam rosewood fret board are based on Pino's 1963 sunburst Precision Bass. Pino has also been known to prefer Thomastik-Infled flat-wound bass strings.^[10]

After 2005[link]

In spring of 2006, Palladino toured with Jeff Beck. He also played with J. J. Cale, and Eric Clapton on their 2006 album The Road to Escondido, alongside other notable musicians, including Derek Trucks, and Billy Preston. It was to be Preston's last work before he died only days afterward. Palladino joined Eric Clapton's touring band for 11 dates in the Eastern U.S. and Canada in May 2008.

In 2008 he recorded 3 tracks for London's The Herbaliser for their album "Same As It Never Was" released on k7! in 2009

In 2009, Palladino joined with keyboardist Philippe Saisse and Simon Phillips to form an instrumental trio: Phillips Saisse Palladino, an instrumental progressive jazz^{[disambiguation needed ]}/funk rock ensemble, which have toured Europe through 2009 into 2010, playing songs that spotlight the talents of each performer, in the manner of many jazz outfits. Current work has included work on an with Clapton and Robbie Robertson, and Palladino guested on bass for Amos Lee on his third album, Last Days at the Lodge. He appears on Jeff Beck's 2010 album, Emotion & Commotion. As of August 2010 Palladino is touring with Herbie Hancock.

Palladino also appears on Manu Katché's third jazz album, Third Round. Both had already played together several times, particularly on Paul Young's Other Voices, as Stephan Eicher's rhythm section in the first half of the 1990s, and on stage with Manu Katché's jazz band The Tweeters. Currently in the studio recording with Steve Gadd; Edie Brickell; Andy Fairweather Low; who have formed a group the Gaddabouts.

In January 2011 he entered the studio with D'Angelo to finish recording the long overdue follow up to Voodoo.^[11]

In 2011 Palladino plays on the second album of Adele: 21.

In May 2011 Palladino plays on the last EP of Revolver (french band), Parallel Lives (french EP).

In January and February 2012 he joined D'Angelo's live band for a short European tour, alongside drummer Chris 'Daddy' Dave and guitarist Jesse Johnson (musician). The tour included performances at London's Brixton Academy.

Discography (selected)[link]

• 1982 with Gary Numan, I, Assassin (Beggars Banquet Records)
• 1983 with David Knopfler, Release (Peach Tree Records)
• 1983 with Paul Young, No Parlez (Columbia)
• 1997 with Steve Lukather, Luke (Columbia, 487360) 2) [1]
• 1985 with Go West, Go West, (Chrysalis)
• 1985 with Paul Young, The Secret of Association (Columbia)
• 1985 with Pete Townshend, White City: A Novel (Atco)
• 1986 with Chris De Burgh, Into The Light (A&M)
• 1987 with Go West, Dancing on the Couch, (Chrysalis)
• 1989 with Tears for Fears, Seeds of Love (Fontana)
• 1990 with Paul Young, Other Voices (Columbia)
• 1990 with Oleta Adams, Circle of One (Fontana)
• 1999 with Jeff Beck, Who Else! (Epic)
• 2000 with D'Angelo, Voodoo (Virgin Records)
• 2006 with J. J. Cale and Eric Clapton, The Road to Escondido (Reprise Records)
• 2010 with Alain Clark, Colorblind (Warner Music)
• 2011 with Robbie Robertson, How to Become Clairvoyant (429 Records)
• 2011 with Adele, 21 (XL recordings)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pino Palladino

• Listen to a Sample Discography
• "Roy Hargrove Presents the RH
• 5 Essential Pino Palladino Tracks
• Discussion of Palladino's roots and bass transcription
• Pino Palladino at Allmusic
• Pino Palladino at the Internet Movie Database

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Alain Clark
Alain Clark, Westerpop 2008
Background information
Birth name	Alain Clark
Born	(1979-06-04) June 4, 1979 (age 33)
Origin	Haarlem, Netherlands
Genres	Soul, pop
Occupations	Singer
Years active	2004–present
Labels	8BallMusic,
Website	www.alainclark.com

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alain Clark

Alain Clark (born 4 June 1979 in Haarlem, The Netherlands) is a Dutch musician and producer.

Biography[link]

Alain Clark is born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He went to there to the Coornhert Lyceum and also lived in the USA for 3 years to work on his songwriting skills. His first album was released in 2004, written and produced by himself, in Dutch and contained the hitsong Heerlijk.

As a producer he worked with Ali B and many others. He produced the debute album of singer Boris. He won the Dutch Zilveren Harp in 2004.

In January 2007 Clark worked on his first album in English. Steve Gadd played all drums on Live It Out, an album that went Gold after within 3 months. Today the album is 3 times Platinum, which means 180.000 copies are sold. The album contains hitsingles like This Ain't Gonna Work, which went straight to the Top 3 and stayed in the Dutch charts for 12 weeks, and the famous duet with his father Dane Clark titled Father and Friend. Dane Clark was the singer of the band Dane and the Dukes of Soul. After these two hitsingles, Blow Me Away reached the Dutch Top 10 as well. In the end of 2007 Alain received a Mega Award. In 2008 he received a 3FM Award and in 2009 he won the high respected Edison Music Award.

After his succes in The Netherlands, Alain Clark released the album in the United Kingdom, and reached the charts inItaly and Switzerland.

In 2010 Clark released his album Colorblind. It went Gold on the first day. It contains the singles Love Is Everywhere, Good Days and a duet with Diane Birch titled Too Soon To End. The album was released in Italy, Switzerland, Brasil and Latvia.

After Live It Out and Colorblind, both very successful records full of melodic soul, 32-year old Alain returns on Generation Love Revival to the passion of his youth: the groove. Alain: ‘At fifteen I mainly listened to hiphop artists. Like them I was only interested in rhythm and minimal melody. Those were my roots, that’s the way I started making music. On Generation Love Revival I return to that groove-based way of composing. And of course: I use all the experience of the years in between.’

‘I am proud of the cast. Besides Pablo Penton and Pablo Minoli, Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave (drums), Pino Palladino (bass) and Cleo ‘Pookie’ Sample (keyboards) contributed to the record.’ They also played on the last records of soul star D’Angelo and Adele.

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alain Clark official Dutch web site
• Alain Clark official UK web site
• Alain Clark French web site
• Review of Alain Clark's UK Showcase
• Alain Clark interview
• New album review
• Interview on Central FM, Spain. Click to listen

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James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Biography[link]

A native of Edisto Island (near Charleston), South Carolina, Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit, Michigan in 1954. He learned to play the double bass at Northwestern High School, and he soon began playing in Detroit area blues and jazz clubs.

Motown years[link]

Jamerson continued performing in Detroit clubs after graduating high school, and his increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios. Starting in 1959 he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. This small, close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. Jamerson's earliest Motown sessions were performed on double bass, but in the early 1960s he switched to mostly playing electric bass - a Fender Precision.

Like Jamerson, most of the other Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. For many years, they maintained a typical schedule of recording during the day at Motown's small garage "Studio A" (which they nicknamed "the Snakepit"), then playing gigs in the jazz clubs at night. They also occasionally toured the U.S. with Motown artists. However for most of their career, the members of the Funk Brothers went uncredited on Motown singles and albums, and their pay was considerably less than the artists or the label received. Eventually Jamerson was put on retainer with Motown for one thousand dollars a week, which afforded him and his ever-expanding family a comfortable lifestyle.

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes Motown hits such as, among hundreds of others, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life", "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder (also claimed by Carol Kaye), "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by the Four Tops, and "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes. According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on "What's Going On", and went to several bars to find the bassist. When he did, he brought Jamerson to the studio, who then played the classic line while lying flat on his back. He is reported to have played on some 95% of Motown recordings between 1962 and 1968. He eventually performed on nearly 30 No. 1 pop hits—surpassing the record commonly attributed to The Beatles. On the R&B charts, nearly 70 of his performances went to the top.

Style and influence[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

Bass line of the 1966 Temptations song Get Ready as played by James Jamerson