Tal Wilkenfeld
| Tal Wilkenfeld | |
|---|---|
Wilkenfeld performing in November 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Tal Wilkenfeld |
| Born |
2 December 1986 Sydney, Australia |
| Genres | Jazz, jazz fusion, blues-rock, rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Bass, guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 2002-present |
| Labels | Resonance |
| Associated acts | Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jackson Browne, Steve Lukather, Vinnie Colaiuta, Lee Ritenour, Wayne Krantz, Ryan Adams |
| Website | www |
| Notable instruments | |
| Sadowsky Bass Guitar | |
Tal Wilkenfeld (born 2 December 1986) is an Australian bass guitarist who has gained worldwide attention performing alongside some of rock and jazz music's most notable artists. In addition to her work as a supporting musician to Jeff Beck, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and others, she has assumed the role of bandleader of her own eponymous bands, whose musicians have included Wayne Krantz, Keith Carlock, John Beasley and Vinnie Colaiuta. In 2008, Wilkenfeld was voted "The Year's Most Exciting New Player" in a Bass Player magazine readers' choice poll.
Wilkenfeld began playing guitar when she was fourteen years old. Two years later in 2002, she dropped out of high school, in Sydney, saying that "it just wasn't going to work for me", and emigrated to the United States where she studied electric guitar. Within a year she had switched to electric bass. Wilkenfeld graduated from Los Angeles Music Academy College of Music in 2004. After a few months she accepted an endorsement from Sadowsky Guitars, and devoted herself to forming a band and composing songs of her own. In 2004, at age 18, she moved to New York City and began making a name for herself in New York's jazz clubs. "I was actually walking around to like several clubs every night till the sun came up, sitting in at jazz clubs just learning. I was really the only one that would go into these clubs with an electric bass, because these were like, you know, places that played exclusively bebop. So I got some funny looks for quite some time. But it was a priceless education." In 2006 while playing at one of the clubs in New York, Wilkenfeld met some members of The Allman Brothers Band. "Oteil Burbridge heard me first, and then Derek Trucks heard me. And those two then just encouraged me to go on with them at the Beacon Theater." It was her first time on the big stage. "Oteil just handed me his bass at the beginning of "Elizabeth Reed" and literally just ran into the audience and was watching me in the audience, smiling." The jam lasted around 40 minutes and Wilkenfeld sent a recording of the performance to Jeff Beck when she auditioned for his band.
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