I rarely talk about what I do or have done on this forum because that's not why I participate and to be frank being on TB is not going to get me any gig's. I just love the bass and music and always want to learn more about it. The point that I was making was that the biggest difference about Tal's success is her gender, not the fact that she is young because many many people ,including myself, have had success at a young age. And as far as her playing with Wayne Krantz and the Allman brothers way before she met Vinnie or chick,I don't think that's accurate but i could be wrong.
The point i want to make is every few years a young person comes along and get's opportunity's with established artist,it's the nature of the game. The main difference now is with the level of media convergence,more people are going to find out about someone quicker.
I first saw Tal play in 2006 during the Allman Brother's run at the Beacon Theatre. Towards the end of the set, Oteil stepped off the stage and on came this young girl. No one in the audience knew who she was. Only later on I found out that it was a 19 year old Tal Wilkenfeld. She played with them for almost an hour and they even featured her playing a solo by herself for a few minutes and had the whole place going crazy. I was immediately a fan. I bought her album when it was released and loved the songs, the playing (Keith Carlock and Wayne Krantz are especially amazing on this album), and the overall feel on the album. Regarding the timeline I know she played with the Allman Brothers, Wayne Krantz, and Jeff "Tain" Watts before she met Vinnie, Chick and Jeff. Here's a wikipedia reference to confirm that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tal_Wilkenfeld
"In 2006, Wilkenfeld performed as a guest with the Allman Brothers Band, and recorded her debut solo album,Transformation, which was recorded over a period of two days when she was just 20 years old. Wilkenfeld composed, produced, arranged, and played bass on seven intricate tunes with Wayne Krantz, Geoffrey Keezer, Seamus Blake, and Keith Carlock."
Her work with Chick and Jeff was all from 2007 onwards. In any case, I'm really happy that Tal was brought to Jeff's attention (which I think may have been an introduction from Vinnie), because it seems like alot of people are only discovering her now, due to the Beck gig, even though she has been on the scene for a while.
Anyway, to be honest, I don't really care how she gets attention and whether or not she gets more attention because she's young or a girl. I know I'd still dig her playing just as much if she was an ugly 80 year old man. What I do find impressive is that despite her age and gender, she had only been playing 2 years when I saw her play with the Allman Brothers. She literally floored both the band and the crowd and they were obviously happy with her performance, because they asked her back to play with them at the Christmas Jam in 2008. So did Wayne Krantz on a tour, and so will many others. I think what we need to ask ourselves is "If you took a blindfold test and knew nothing about Tal Wilkenfeld, would you enjoy her playing?" I know its a matter of taste, but personally, I love her musicality, groove, sense of melody, and fresh approach to the bass. I think that's why this topic was started and I'd like to end it that way.
