Tinkr Barfield

TINKR BARFIELD COMPOSER -PERFORMER - PRODUCER - MUSICIAN

Eluriel “Tinkr” Barfield releases his new single, City Blues, from his forthcoming album Blended on January, 8th 2018.

Tinkr grew up Brooklyn New York’s Red Hook Projects where he began playing bass at age 8 and impressed area professionals with his prowess. By age 13, he was performing with such local groups as the Soul Heat Band and The Winners. At age 18, he met Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson who catapulted his professional career to national prominence.

Joining forces with Ashford and Simpson was only the beginning. Tinkr has played bass in live performances and on studio productions with many world-renowned artists including Grammy Award winners Luther Vandross and Lou Rawls; Tony Award winners Lillias White and Phylicia Rashad and with internationally recognized musicians like Robbie Roberson, Carlos Alomar (musical director for the late David Bowie) and Ray Chew, (Dancing With The Stars, Showtime at the Apollo). But it doesn’t end there. Tinkr has recorded with a number of other artists representing a range of music genres, including Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), David Frank & Mic Murphy (The System), James “D Train” Williams, Keith Washington, Will Downing, Fonzi Thornton, Danny Gatton, Fred Schneider, Jeff Lorber, Walter Williams (The O’Jays), Sylvester, Martha and the Muffins, The B- 52’s, Jaheim, Roberta Flack, The Roches, Marvin Sease, Steve Kroon, Doc Powell, Dunn Pearson, Martha Wash, Angie Bofill, Debbie Gibson, Jennifer Holliday, Ebony Jo-Ann, Val Ghent, Kevin Owens (Ray, Goodman and Brown) and Alfa Anderson (Music From my Heart). In cabaret, he has worked with Bill Cosby and Sheryl Lee Ralph. His theater work includes holding the bass chair for the original production of Dream Girls and Truly Blessed.

Tinkr studied music composition with the great Earl Coleman and was a New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) artist-in- residence at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, a high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For ten years, Tinkr produced The Holiday Event for Combe, Inc. booking such acts as Ashford & Simpson, Tamyra Gray, Lisa Fischer, Vanessa Williams, George Benson, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Chaka Khan, Lee Ann Rimes and Kool and the Gang.

For years, I’ve played with many artists and at this stage of my life I’m ready to come out front and do my thing. I recorded my first solo CD project with a stellar team of music legends and friends (It Is What It Is! 2011).

On Blended, his second project, Tinkr successfully blends different musical genres to create a project that, in his word, is “classy, greasy, funky, jazzy, and booga!” On his first single, City Blues, Tinkr reunites with fellow Luther Vandross bandmates (Nat Adderley, Jr., John “Skip” Anderson, Ivan Hampden, Steve Kroon, and Doc Powell to create a jazzy, funky track sung by Clayton Bryant with Alfa Anderson and Keith Anthony Fluitt on background vocals.) You’ll love his arrangements on other classic songs like the popular jazz hit Take 5 and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s My Favorite Things. His solo rendition of the Lennon/McCartney classic, Yesterday, showcases his melodic bass playing. And his originals Freedom (Free to be Me), Do It to the Max, Don’t Fear (The Reaper), Loving State of Mind, Song of Solomon and For Alfa have been Tinkr-ized with a swag that only he can bring. Show less