Tal Wilkenfeld, Australian bass player and composer
Tal Wilkenfeld (born 2 December 1986) is an Australian singer, songwriter, bassist and guitarist. She has performed with artists including Jeff Beck, Prince, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock and Mick Jagger. In 2008, Wilkenfeld was voted "The Year's Most Exciting New Player" by Bass Player magazine readers' choice poll. In 2013, Wilkenfeld was awarded Bass Player Magazine's "Young Gun Award" by Don Was, where she performed "Chelsea Hotel" by Leonard Cohen.
Wilkenfeld is a bandleader of her own eponymous bands in which she sings, plays bass and guitar. In her 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, Wilkenfeld released a single entitled "Corner Painter" which features Blake Mills and Benmont Tench. Also in 2016, Rolling Stone stated 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 featured in Rolling Stone, Relix, Paste, Billboard and Forbes. Rolling Stone described Wilkenfeld's vocal debut as "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.