Ode to Pino.

I played bass a bunch this weekend and was giving some thought to my earlier comments about Pino Palladino, Guy Pratt, and Graham Maby - great British bass players all. What exactly is it that makes a great bassist? Well, it's really like asking what makes a great writer or sculptor, I suppose - it's different for each one. The characteristics that make Flea great, for instance, are quite different from the ones that made Jaco Pastorius great. (And please don't think for a moment that I would equate one with another - that is a debate for pinheads. )

That's all just a bit of a preamble to thinking about Pino. What exactly is it that makes him so amazing? For me, it has to do with a sense of tone that is something that might be described as "liquid". If that doesn't make sense - and it probably doesn't, after all - you can start with the standard Pino track that everyone knows: Listen to the 80's hit "Every Time You Go Away" by Paul Young. Pino plays bass on that. If you listen, and I mean really listen, to the bass playing, you'll hear a tone of fluidity and connectedness from note to note that goes a long way toward defining his greatness. (Don't confuse the sitar part with the bass on that track, mind you.) It's tone, it's note choice, and - here's the thing that it took me years to figure out but still haven't mastered for myself - it's about the space, or lack thereof, between particular notes. Each note flows cleanly and seamlessly into the next, note after note, tone after tone - and then there is the slightest break between them for a staccato tone you weren't expecting - and then you're back to liquid. It's amazing.

And then listen to the John Mayer trio record and hear Pino play live. It's not just about tone. His sense of timing and space - in the context of a power trio, no less - is about as perfect as can be imagined. Without meaning to get into hyperbole, I think that Pino's playing on that record (with obvious assistance from the other two chaps on the stage) can go into the pantheon of great trio bass playing with Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix Experience) and Jack Bruce (Cream). It's not just liquid tone, it's liquid groove. And again, the space between notes just jumps out at you - because there isn't any unless he wants there to be.

When The Who's iconoclastic bassist John Entwistle passed away in 2002, there was only one player to call to fill those shoes: Pino. It is, of course, impossible to replace John Entwistle - it simply can't be done. But if anyone can step in and breathe different and therefore new life into the music, that person is Pino. And as only a true great can't do, he has done it in a way that makes the listener appreciate the greatness of Palladino, but also (and possibly more importantly) cherish the brilliance of Entwistle's playing.

It's funny - most of the bassists I've referenced (Pino, Guy Pratt, Graham Maby, Noel Redding, Jack Bruce, and John Entwistle) were from the UK. (Flea and Jaco are the only ones I've cited from this side of the pond, but there is certainly no shortage of great Yankee bassists. I'll have to write glowing accolades to them another time.) And at some point, I'll write a rambling tribute to Guy Pratt. And then the great and vastly underappreciated Graham Maby.