Tal Wilkenfeld

Tal Wilkenfeld (born 2 December 1986) is an Australian singer, songwriter, bassist, and guitarist.

She has performed with artists including Jeff Beck, Prince, Incubus, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, and Mick Jagger.

Born in Bondi, New South Wales, Wilkenfeld began playing guitar in 2000 when she was 14 years old.

Two years later, she dropped out of high school and emigrated to the United States, where she studied electric guitar.

Within a year, Wilkenfeld switched to electric bass.

In 2004, Wilkenfeld graduated from Los Angeles College of Music.

She accepted an endorsement from Sadowsky Guitars, and devoted herself to forming a band and composing songs.

At the age of 18, Wilkenfeld moved to New York City and began performing in New York's jazz clubs.

While playing at a club in New York in 2006, Wilkenfeld met some members of the Allman Brothers Band.

She credits Oteil Burbridge and Derek Trucks with encouraging her to join them at the Beacon Theatre, her first time on a large stage.

The jam was about 40 minutes long; Wilkenfeld sent a recording of the performance to Jeff Beck when she auditioned for his band.

In 2006, months after performing as a guest with the Allman Brothers Band, Wilkenfeld recorded her debut album, Transformation, in only two days.

Wilkenfeld composed, produced, arranged and played bass on seven songs with Wayne Krantz, Geoffrey Keezer, saxophonist Seamus Blake and Keith Carlock.

After learning that Chick Corea was seeking a bassist for an upcoming tour, Wilkenfeld sent him demos of Transformation, and was selected for his 2007 Australian tour, along with Frank Gambale and Antonio Sanchez.

A few months later, she joined Jeff Beck, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Jason Rebello for Beck's summer European tour.

The group completed a tour performing at Eric Clapton's 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, performing to a sell-out crowd of approximately 40,000 people.

By November 2007, Wilkenfeld rejoined Beck and the other band members for a week-long residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.

Beck selected the venue to record a new DVD and CD, with guests including Clapton, Joss Stone, and Imogen Heap.

It was recorded, filmed, and released as Live at Ronnie Scott's.

On the same trip, Wilkenfeld joined Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, singer Corinne Bailey Rae, and drummer Colaiuta on a session filmed for the A&E series, Live from Abbey Road.

Wilkenfeld completed 2007 with two standing-room-only Greenwich Village shows with Wayne Krantz.

In 2008, Wilkenfeld was voted "The Year's Most Exciting New Player" in a Bass Player magazine readers' choice poll.

In 2008, Wilkenfeld accompanied Krantz at shows in Los Angeles, before an Australian tour with Krantz and Kevin Carlock, a reunion of the band which appeared on Transformation.

At the end of the tour, Krantz, Carlock, and John Beasley backed Wilkenfeld during her headlining set for Bass Player LIVE! 2008 in Los Angeles.

In July, she accompanied Jeff Beck in a tribute to George Martin in Los Angeles.

She appeared at Warren Haynes's 20th Annual Christmas Jam while reuniting and performing with the Allman Brothers and guesting with Gov't Mule, Ivan Neville, and Robben Ford.

In 2008, Wilkenfeld received a phone call from Prince.

She was surprised that his first words to her were, "Do you like the drum rolls of Jack DeJohnette?"

Prince had Wilkenfeld attend parties at his Los Angeles home.

In 2013, Wilkenfeld was awarded the Bass Player magazine's "Young Gun Award" by Don Was; she then performed "Chelsea Hotel" by Leonard Cohen.

Wilkenfeld is a bandleader of her own bands in which she sings, plays bass, and plays guitar.

In earlier work, she was backed by musicians such as Wayne Krantz and Vinnie Colaiuta.

She opened for the Who on the North American part of The Who Hits 50! tour in 2016.

In 2016, she released a single entitled "Corner Painter" featuring Blake Mills and Benmont Tench.

Also in 2016, Rolling Stone said that Wilkenfeld was "working on new music that sees her evolving from an instrumental prodigy into a formidable singer-songwriter."

On 15 March 2019, Wilkenfeld released her vocal debut album Love Remains, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseeker charts on the first week of its release.

Love Remains has been highly praised by the press and was featured in Rolling Stone, Relix, Paste, Billboard, and Forbes.

Rolling Stone described her vocal debut as having "ten dense, riff-heavy tracks with brazen, introspective lyrics—prove her songwriting abilities."

Wilkenfeld has also been a guest on popular podcasts, including WTF with Marc Maron, and Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast.

Wilkenfeld has recorded on projects with Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Toto, Todd Rundgren, Macy Gray, Dr. John, Trevor Rabin, Jackson Browne, Joe Walsh, Rod Stewart, John Mayer, Sting, Ben Harper, David Gilmour, Pharrell, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Lee Ritenour, Hiram Bullock, Susan Tedeschi, and Hans Zimmer.