Tal Wilkenfeld

At 37 years old, Tal Wilkenfeld physical status not available right now. We will update Tal Wilkenfeld's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

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 Theater, her first time on a large 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 about 40 minutes and 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 just two days. Wilkenfeld composed, produced, arranged and played bass on seven songs with Wayne Krantz, Geoffrey Keezer, saxophonist Seamus Blake and Keith Carlock.

Professional bass playing career

Upon 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 their tour at Eric Clapton's 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, Illinois, performing to a sell-out crowd of approximately 40,000 people. By November 2007, Wilkenfeld had rejoined Beck and the other band members for a week-long residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Beck selected that venue to record a new DVD and CD, with guests that included 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 Vinnie 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 Krantz.

In 2008, Wilkenfeld accompanied Krantz at shows in Los Angeles, before an Australian tour with Krantz and Carlock, a reunion of the band that appeared on Transformation. At the conclusion 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, reuniting and performing with The Allman Brothers Band 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 brought Wilkenfeld to parties at his Los Angeles home. Sometimes he and his band played and she was their lone audience member.

Months later, Prince called Wilkenfeld from Minneapolis, and said that he wanted to put together a trio with her, asking Wilkenfeld to find them a drummer. They settled on Chris Coleman, who had been playing with Chaka Khan and Rachelle Farrell, and Prince flew the two musicians to Paisley Park for the first time in late 2009. In March 2010, Wilkenfeld travelled to Paisley Park, and began to improvise and play chords on instruction from Prince. "I just made everything up; he gave me no direction about what to play beyond a chord here or there. It was just do your thing", Wilkenfeld explained. "I never heard the lyrics, never knew what the songs were about, never heard the melody. It was like we had to be psychic when we were playing", she added. The result of this work culminated in Welcome 2 America - Prince's 2021 album and first posthumous release with previously unreleased music, which features Wilkenfeld on bass on 10 of the 12 tracks, recorded in 2010.

Prince told Wilkenfeld that he was feeling inspired by 'the Jimi Hendrix Experience'. "Even though it later evolved into having keyboards and background vocals," says Wilkenfeld, "the album was essentially recorded as a trio, so it has that raw vibe." Welcome 2 America was constructed in discrete stages with different cohorts of musicians. Prince started out recording instrumental tracks — without vocals or lyrics — live in the studio with Wilkenfeld on bass and Chris Coleman on drums. Prince also worked with singers Shelby J. (for Johnson), Liv Warfield, and Elisa Fiorillo, sharing leads and harmonies with them. Morris Hayes added keyboards and simulated string and horn arrangements, earning credit as co-producer for six of the album’s 12 songs. "Prince also had two listening parties around May 2010 after we tracked. He was so excited to be playing us fully mixed tracks. He was definitely into the music. People were pulling up in limos dressed in Grammy attire." said Wilkenfeld It is unknown why the album was shelved for 11 years. Even a decade later, those who worked on the album still do not understand why. "That was a surprise to me," Morris Hayes says. If he had to guess, Prince may have axed it because not all of the album's collaborators (including Wilkenfeld) were able to join Prince on the road. "I only surmised that if he couldn't put this album out with the crew he created it with, then I think it was a big mitigating factor in why it hit the shelf," Hayes says. "Prince had this thing where he would shoot first and ask questions later. And if he didn't have commitment from all those people that we could go out and make a big splash – with a new band, a new Prince – then the balloon would just go down. If all those things weren't aligned, that would cause that (music) to go in the vault." After the recording sessions and listening parties, Wilkenfeld remembers: "The last time I saw him, I have a vivid memory of him sitting at his desk, and when I walked in he thanked me. Prince said, 'I've been searching for this sound for years, and I'm really grateful that you helped me find it.' It was the sweetest thing, and I'm so sad that that's my last memory." It was the last time Wilkenfeld saw Prince alive.

Prince premiered his song "Hot Summer" featuring Wilkenfeld on Minnesota public radio station 89.3 on 7 June 2010.

In 2009, Wilkenfeld toured Australia and Japan with Jeff Beck, who referred to her as a genius, saying "She will pick up mistakes that...Vinnie and I miss. So, she's a great anchor as well." Weeks later, the group toured the United States, beginning with Beck's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where they played Beck's Bolero and were joined by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page on Immigrant Song.

A DVD of this performance, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Legends,tv was released in 2010.

Between touring Japan and America, Wilkenfeld performed with The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as their first musical guest, after which she joined Jeff Beck's summer tour through Europe, Canada and the UK. Pink Floyd's David Gilmour sat in with the group during a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

In October 2009, Wilkenfeld reunited with Beck at Madison Square Garden for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th Anniversary two-night concert. The set included Buddy Guy on "Let Me Love You Baby", Sting singing "People Get Ready", and Billy Gibbons on "Foxey Lady". The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts DVD, which also included "Big Block", "A Day in the Life", and "Freeway Jam", was released in 2010.

Wilkenfeld was featured on four tracks on Jeff Beck's album Emotion & Commotion.

In 2010, Wilkenfeld contributed to Hancock's The Imagine Project on "A Change is Gonna Come" and "Don't Give Up" She played on Macy Gray's The Sellout on "That Man" and on Lee Ritenour's Six String Theory on "68", "In your Dreams", "Give Me One Reason" and Guthrie Govan's song "Fives".

In 2010, Wilkenfeld appeared in The Baked Potato's 40th anniversary show at the Ford Amphitheater with Steve Lukather's band, and accompanied Hancock across the US, Canada, and Europe to promote a new release on which she had played. The tour included a show at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Hancock's 70th birthday.

In September 2011, Wilkenfeld accompanied Steven Tyler and Jeff Beck at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Sting, who also accompanied Tyler on a song, recalled in a 2017 interview with Bass Player that Wilkenfeld had corrected him on an Aerosmith song. "I really respected her courage to come up to me and teach me the right way to play the part, and I was very grateful. She's an amazing bassist with great ears."

On 19 May 2012, Wilkenfeld accompanied Beck and Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Live.

In 2013, Wilkenfeld joined alt-country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams as a collaborator on his studio album, Ryan Adams (2014). She contributed to two tracks on the Toto album Toto XIV, and co-wrote a song called "Running Whiskey" with ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons. "Running Whiskey" was released in 2016 by Supersonic Blues Machine.

In 2018, Wilkenfeld performed with Bob Weir and his band Wolf Bros at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, and the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan.

Wilkenfeld was featured on the cover of Bass Player magazine's March 2019 issue. On 22 July 2019, Wilkenfeld appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing "Killing Me" and "Corner Painter".

Solo career

On 3 March 2016, Wilkenfeld released a single called "Corner Painter", featuring Blake Mills and Benmont Tench. On 15 March 2017, Judd Apatow featured "Corner Painter" on season two of his Netflix series Love.

Wilkenfeld opened for The Who on the North American part of The Who Hits 50! tour, starting in Detroit on 27 February 2016. Wilkenfeld headlined of her own between The Who dates, starting in Toronto, Ontario on 29 February 2016.

On 14 December 2018, Wilkenfeld released a song entitled "Under The Sun". In 2019, Billboard magazine premiered her new single "Killing Me". Wilkenfeld released her debut vocal album Love Remains on 15 March 2019. The album includes Blake Mills on guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboard, and Jackson Browne as executive producer. Love Remains reached No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseeker charts on the first week of its release.

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