WHEN it was initially sketched out as project, Notes With Attachments, Welsh bass legend Pino Palladino and Californian songwriter and producer Blake Mills’ forthcoming album for New Deal/Impulse!, was all set to be a Pino solo affair; but, in the way of these things, especially when these things feature two wholly open-minded creatives, it grew, evolved; and on the strength of the opening single drop revealed here today, “Just Wrong”, (you can hear it on embed, down below), looks set to be a very cool set with a shared billing.
Have a listen, and you’ll find a bright number, with Pino’s deliciously woody bass work recalling greats like Ron Carter; crisply arranged brass leading you through a widescreen landscape. This could hold its head high on the Atlantic Records of ’61, ’62. Yep, that good.
“With a song like this, built-in layers, at various points along the road you look around and go: what is this? Where is the composition?” says Blake.
“Sometimes you end up drawing the blueprints of the house after it’s fully been built.”
“It all evolved from me playing Blake a few ideas, getting a reaction from [him] and seeing if he’d be interested in working on [them],” Pino explains.
“As the project evolved in the first few weeks and months – even though the music was mostly coming from my original ideas, some of which I’d had for quite a while – [because of] Blake’s response to the ideas, it dawned on both of us that it would be a collaborative record.”
Notes With Attachments was recorded in session stretching over two and a half years, and features and ensemble comprised of drummer Chris Dave, who’s worked with D’Angelo and Anderson .Paak; saxophonists Sam Gendel, Marcus Strickland, and Jacques Schwartz-Bart, keyboardist Larry Goldings and others.
Pino Palladino and Blake Mills’ Notes With Attachments will be released by digitally and on CD and vinyl on March 12th by New Deal/Impulse!; you can pre-order and pre-save your copy here.
Connect with Blake Mills at his website and on Instagram, Twitter and Spotify; and Pino Palladino on Instagram, Twitter and Spotify.
