When Marcus Miller shared a photo of fellow bassist Pino Palladino at the 2026 Grammy Awards, it wasn’t just a backstage moment – it was a quiet summit of bass guitar history.
In fact, the term “bass guitar” next to either of their names somehow falls short of describing their enormous contributions, both on recordings and onstage.
Miller, the architect of modern funk and jazz fusion, stood alongside Palladino, whose lines have powered everything from pop to neo-soul, prior to a special tribute performance honouring the late Roberta Flack and D’Angelo.
“I’m performing with Ms. Lauryn Hill tonight in a tribute to Roberta Flack,” wrote Miller on social media. “She’s also doing an iconic tribute to D’Angelo. So of course the great bassist Pino Palladino is here too.”
Having put fretless bass on the pop music map in the 1980s, Pino Palladino continued to bolster his resume with stints in the Who – replacing the late John Entwistle – and D’Angelo’s heralded 2000 album, Voodoo.
“I met D'Angelo while doing a track for B.B. King's Deuces Wild, and we hit it off right away,” Palladino told Bass Player. “Whenever he sang, I played better!
“He saw me playing my '63 P-Bass and said, ‘That's a Bootsy bass, right?’ I mentioned that James Jamerson also played one, and he went crazy over that.
“It turned out the approach I'd been focusing on was the concept he wanted. He just said, ‘You've got the sound I'm looking for – come and play bass on Voodoo.’”
Following a medley of hit songs from D’Angelo’s back catalogue, Hill shifted into a homage to Roberta Flack, who Miller worked with in the early ‘80s.
Talking to Red Bull Music Academy back in November 2015 he said: “I was in Roberta Flack’s band for a couple of years. I met Luther Vandross in that band. It was amazing to play in her band and learn how to really play a ballad, how to use space, how not to play all the notes, just play the right notes. I think I was 19, 20, maybe just turning 21, right before I started with Miles Davis.
“A few years later in the mid-’80s I came back to Roberta Flack, but this time as a writer and a producer. I produced an album for her called Oasis, and I was very proud to return to somebody in whose band I had worked. It was fantastic to give back to Roberta Flack after I had received so much from her.”
With Lalah Hathaway, Miller later covered Flack’s hit Killing Me Softly on his 2002 live album Marcus Miller: Master of All Trades.
Other notable bass-driven acts to win at this year’s Grammys included Christian McBride, whose big band album Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 scooped Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Meanwhile, Guns n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was on hand to pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and his GnR bandmate Slash.
To cap it off, That Wasn’t A Dream by Pino Palladino and guitarist Blake Mills won Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
