Heading into mellow territory this lunchtime with Fabiana Palladino at last week’s Great Escape Festival, recorded live on May 16th.
Doing appearances to coincide with the release of her debut s/t album, Fabiana Palladino has been getting a lot of positive feedback and drawing numerous comparisons to R&B and Soul artists of the 70s/early 80s.
Although she does perform with a band, this Great Escape Festival appearance features her in a solo spot with only a piano and bass to accompany her – and here’s where the 70s smokey/dim-penthouse/luxuriant sound triumphs.
It’s a refreshing departure from the heavily processed and surgically produced music that’s been making the rounds of late – she’s gathering up her influences from deeper, headier places, injecting her songs with a soulful passion that makes it easy to understand why she’s high on many critics must-keep-an-eye-on lists.
There’s some musical lineage here – she’s the daughter of prominent bassist Pino Palladino and some of the influence may have rubbed off – but one suspects it’s more being turned on to dad’s record collection and what no doubt is a treasure trove of discoveries.
No matter what, Fabiana Palladino has something intimate and soulful to offer and she brings with her a breath of fresh air and some straight-from-the-heart songwriting. As she has indicated in interviews, the bulk of the inspiration for this debut album comes from examining a relationship-turned-sour, but without the morbidity and finger-pointing.
It’s honest music and Fabiana Palladino is an engaging artist. One I have a hunch we’re going to be hearing a lot more from over the coming weeks and months and, crossed fingers, longer.
Short set, but enough to stimulate curiosity and a desire to hear more, which you can is she’s coming to your neighborhood (don’t think America is in the cards just yet) or heading over to Bandcamp and checking out what’s available (CD-download and Vinyl are still available – special editions are not . . .sorry).
Definitely worth checking out and most definitely a good idea to keep an eye on Fabiana Palladino.
