Palladino’s bringing top-notch jazz to Cardiff

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, where I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious.

For this episode, I was joined by Marc Palladino, drummer and venue boss of Palladino’s Jazz and Blues Bar - now becoming the best location to experience live jazz in Cardiff. Marc is brother of award-winning songwriter, producer and bassist Pino Palladino.

The track you can hear at the start and end of the show is the Harmonious World theme tune, composed and performed by pianist Joe English.

*** On 24 September 2026, I will be recording an episode in front of an audience with pianist, organist and composer Rufus Frowde - you can get your tickets here! This event is part of Hitchin Creative's Online & IRL programme, bringing live creative events to audiences both in person and online.

Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show.

Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing."

Transcript

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Hilary 0:05

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World. I'm your host, Hilary Seabrook. And for this episode, I am joined by Mark Palladino, who is a drummer from Wales, who has a jazz club in Wales called Palladinos. We're going to be talking all about that. I actually played with his brother many, many years ago. Pino Palladino is a very, very famous bass player. Anyway, what you're listening to now is my Harmonious World theme tune as performed by Joe English, who is in his last year at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. So I hope you enjoy listening to my conversation with Mark Palladino.

Mark 1:02

Yeah, you're okay.

Hilary 1:04

I'm good, thank you. Mark, nice to meet you. So I want to talk to you about Palladinos in Cardiff. What on earth possessed you to open a jazz venue in 2026?

Mark 1:21

Well, do you know what? I mean, it's something I've always I've we've got restaurants in Cardiff. I mean, we've got a couple of restaurants. One of them we've been here since 1986. And I've always kind of done, because I play myself, I was working in a restaurant, so I couldn't go out and do gigs. So I brought music to the restaurant so as I could keep a hand in, you know, keep a hand in playing, like bringing the mountain to Mohammed, I always called it. So um, so I've been doing that for 30 years, you know, just on a month. We used to do a Monday night and a Thursday night, just little bits and pieces. We've had we got this property in um in in uh suburb of Cardiff, Witchurch. We got two floors. The bottom floor is the restaurant, and the the the upper floor, we've always tried to do a few restaurants up there. We they you know we've had some hits, some misses. But I thought we then we started using it for private parties and functions. And I thought I I was missing all these great bands that were taught, you know, they were coming on the London jazz scene, you know, the the the 606 and the Ronnie Scott. I was always envious of the great musicians that had going to play there. And sometimes they'd go to Swansea, they'd bypass Cardiff and go to Swansea and Bristol, but they would never come to Cardiff. There was a little um jazz club, uh little jazz club which was called the Flut and Tank, which I was inspired by because they're only small. It was up on the first floor as well. Well, I I had this room upstairs, it was uh the well, it was a restaurant upstairs, it was a kitchen and a dining area. So I just took the kitchen out, got rid of the kitchen, knocked it all through into one sort of straight piece and put a stage in there, a nice bar, and I thought, less I want to open a jazz club, you know, I want to see some great music in Cardiff. And uh, so that's that's what I've done. And I'm using, you know, the the people, the Ronnie Scott's crew, 606, the jazz, you know, the Pizza Express. I'm trying to get those that type of musicianship to Cardiff because it wasn't it wasn't coming again. I was always jealous of seeing it everywhere else.

Hilary 3:34

Yeah, and uh you had Kyle Eastwood, is that right?

Mark 3:37

In July, yeah, yeah. Kyle Eastwood. He's gonna come back again, I think. And maybe maybe in I can't remember what he said, March or April. But yeah, we had them back in July. They did two nights, two shows a night, all sold out. Fantastic.

Hilary 3:53

That's amazing.

Mark 3:54

And three and before that, I had Omar with his band with QCBA, with Quentin Collins and Brandon Allen.

Hilary 4:01

That's such a great band. I think that's probably one of my favourite bands at the moment. So, how often are you putting jazz on?

Mark 4:08

Well, at the moment, I'm just doing once a week on a Thursday night. But if there's call to do another night, I'll do another night as well. Like coming, I think it's September now. I've got two or three nights a week in in or might be October, sort of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I'm doing then with Quentin Collins again, is one of those nights. With his uh with his Latin band, Almanac, I think they're called. They're great. Yeah. But I'm you know, I'm uh I'm not doing it too many nights because I don't want to comp I you know, I don't want to compromise the quality of musician that I've that I that I get there. So I'm doing it too often. I will have to compromise and bring lesser musicians in a few, you know, no disrespect to anybody.

Hilary 4:54

Yeah. Oh well, fantastic. Well, uh, I will keep an eye out and I shall have to come down at some point and uh check it out. Oh, you've got Ian Ballamy coming in September.

Mark 5:05

Ian's coming, I've played with Ian before. Yeah, he's Ian's coming. Who's he coming with uh Dan Massori? Yeah, Dan Messery. Yeah. Dan Messery.

Hilary 5:12

Right. Um before that, I think I've got the I can't remember, is it is it the um oh the jo John Coltrane experience.

Mark 5:21

John Coltrane experience, but that's sold out already, yeah. Which is great. They're uh Bristol-based musicians, I think. I'm I'm always booking stuff. I mean I'm sort of doing lots of research. I'm looking looking online for what's going into London and stuff. I've got a great um uh Boston over duo coming from over from America, and then you've got a brass band on the the eight. They're Welsh, they're they're they're like a New Orleans type brass band, they are they're great. Yeah, they're really good, yeah.

Hilary 5:50

But you've got Amanda Whiting in December, that would be brilliant.

Mark 5:54

Yeah, she's good. Remy Harris is another great, great guitarist. Uh Remy, I think he's uh sort of Worcester-based, but he's a fantastic musician, does his gypsy jazz thing, but he's great. And I've got Hey Machine, Hey Mur Stewart is gonna come again in January, February. So yeah, I'm just trying to get stuff that's affordable. I mean, not you know, not cheaper in any way, but affordable because I you know it's only a small place, I can only charge so much for tickets.

Hilary 6:28

So you're a musician and you have a very famous brother who actually I remember working with back in the 80s. So talk to me about your musical background, but also Pinot.

Mark 6:40

Well, yeah, I mean, we we all sort of got got into playing music at the same time, actually. When we were we were all very young, we would always love well, it was 60s, I suppose, then the Beatles was all at the rage, wasn't it? And um Pinot started playing guitar. Actually, we went to a Catholic school, and there was a Catholic priest called Father Delaney, who used to give guitar lessons in the school when we were about 10 or 11 years, well, it would have been nine or ten, actually, in standard four, it was called then. And um, so Pinot took up the the guitar uh first because he's a few years older than me, and then he used to go to folk masses in the church playing the acoustic guitar with a few other guitars, and Father Delaney used to love, you know, he thought Pinot was great at the time, and um I did the the the guitar thing a bit later on with Father Delaney as well, but I didn't do so much of the the folk masses. I wanted to go and play rugby and football and rather than go to the folk masses, but uh Pinot did, and that got him started, and then from there I think my mum and dad found him some guitar lessons with a Spanish guitar teacher in in Cardiff. That was the only, I think the only teacher around at the time. And I think within about six months they they they called my parents or when it when he took them one day, and they said we can't teach him anymore. He's you know he's he's gone past us. So I mean, I remember him playing all this beautiful beautiful Spanish music at home, and um then we sort of got into the the the rock side of things, the rock and blues. So he got into electric guitar and I got into drums and it just all went from there, really just never it never ended, still going to this day. Yeah, but Pino Pino obviously took it very seriously. He wanted to be a musician. You you know, from an early age, he was he was he was practicing all the time, and then when he he changed the bass, I think he would have been about from guitar because he was always a guitarist, but he changed the bass, I think he might have been about 17 years old, 18 possibly, and then from there he would have been he'd be in his bedroom three or four hours a day practicing the bass to get you know to get the Jago Pastorius licks right. Yeah, yeah. And I went into the family business. I I love playing drums, but I didn't take it seriously enough to to become professional. I was I just wanted to get some money and and go out and enjoy myself. I was more of a party animal than Pinot was. But um, yeah, it was you know, I was kept my hand in obviously playing with local bands, but I didn't take it seriously like Pinot did, and he still does. He still practices.

Hilary 9:28

Well, yeah, I bet he does. Yeah, he I mean he's a he's he's sort of always been a sort of big uh UK with an international uh an international place, isn't he?

Mark 9:42

I mean it was dad. Yeah, dad has got us all going in the first place because he he loved music. I think he played when he was in Italy before he came over to this country, and he was always encouraging us to to to to learn to play music. I was tapping, so he said, I'll buy you drums. And Pino was always you know messing about playing stuff as well. So he he he got him into guitar, he bought them all instruments, he bought us all instruments to use, you know, which is great. We were lucky, very lucky, yeah.

Hilary 10:11

Very lucky. Well, fantastic. Well, that's brilliant, and then that that's that's brought you kind of full circle to having a jazz club. So that's fantastic. I and I I think it's such a good thing to you know to be helping musicians have a have a stake.

Mark 10:28

Yeah, yeah. I mean, as being a musician myself, I still go out and play. I mean, I I I appreciate what it's like to turn up as a musician to a club and be appreciated and be looked after. So I look after the musicians as well, because a lot of places you go to, they don't even move stuff out of the way for you to set up your gear, you know. So I got everything set up, I got a whole back line. So I make it as easy as easy for the musicians as possible. And I look after them, I feed them. We got the restaurant downstairs, you know. So it's a it's it's great. And to be honest, I'm I'm not in it to make money, it'd be great if I can make money, but but I'd be lucky to have the restaurant downstairs, which covers most of the costs, but if it covers its own costs, I'm happy with that. If I can wash my face with it, I'm happy with that, you know. Yeah, just great, great, bring some great music to Cardiff.

Hilary 11:20

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Mark. I've really appreciated it. It's been great talking to you.

Mark 11:25

Thank you. It'd be great talking to you too. Hopefully, you see you in Cardiff.

Hilary 11:28

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll let you know when I'm on my way.

Mark 11:31

All right.

Hilary 11:40

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Harmonious World. And it was great to chat with Mark Palladino about Palladinos in Cardiff, and I'll put the links in the show notes so you can see what he's got coming up. And thanks for supporting Harmonious World, whether that's writing a review, rating, sharing, supporting me on Patreon. Thank you for continuing to support Harmonious World.