I first heard Tal when I was checking out random live music videos on YouTube and I happened across the Beck tour. As soon as I heard the bass playing I was listening to something that really spoke to me about what the bass is all about in a way that is very rare for me.
It's happened a few times before, like when I first started playing Geezer Butler for myself and learning his Hand Of Doom riffs and I remember when I got my first Primus album, Frizzle Fry, and being slammed in the chest with the genuinely
primal bass sound of Spegetti Western. Hearing many of the fans of Jaco describe his playing tells me that they are hearing something touching them deeply this way.
Listening to Tal play her fretless was just like that. She doesn't play the bass like it's an instrument - it's an extension of herself, like the human voice. I've since got a lot more of her music and her bass playing just flat out
grooves. When I listen to it I don't listen to it critically to try to analyze it so much as listen to it emotionally. It really does connect with me on a more basic level.
She's the reason I de-fretted my bass instead of having it re-fretted and now I'm spending a lot of time these days learning for myself how to play in that style. Even though I've been playing for more than 20 years, I hope that I can be
close to her ability in another 20.
P.S.
Anyone who says she is ugly . . . .
She looks sexy as hell in spite of the fact that she doesn't doll herself up. Or maybe because of it. I get the feeling that some people would think more highly of her if she played while wearing high heels and a swimsuit and applied makeup to her face with a garden trowell.