My imaginary ultimate chick band is now nearly complete: Zoe Keating on cello, Kaki King on guitar, and now Tal Wilkenfeld on bass. If you haven’t heard this little punk from Australia play, get out some real speakers and check out her bass solo (playing live with Jeff Beck) in the clip at left. Her solo starts around 1:16. Even if you don’t like her playing, watching Jeff Beck bow and surrender repeatedly to a 23 year old bass player makes it all worth it. Unfortunately, Wilkenfeld’s been too busy playing with the likes of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter to release a CD since 2007′s Transformation, which was recorded in just two days. Apparently this kind of accelerated activity is typical for her; she started playing guitar at 14, switched to bass at 17, and at 18 moved to the states and started the career that has her playing with jazz legends at 23. I can’t wait to hear how her career shapes up; for now the best way to keep up with what she’s sounding like is to peruse YouTube and catch clips of her live appearances. Her official site is here, but seems a little underdeveloped. Hopefully this is a side  effect of the fact that she’s too busy defining who she is herself to get mis-packaged, as so often happens with female talent in the music industry.

Photo ©2009 Ueli Frey – DrJazz.ch