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