From performing with a huge array of big-name artists – including Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Nas, Destiny's Child, and George Clinton, to name but a few – to auditioning for Prince, session ace Ella Feingold has done it all, and proven herself to be the one A-listers call when they need an R&B and funk electric guitar player.
Feingold was recently honored with a Grammy for her performance on 2021’s An Evening with Silk Sonic by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – a truly well-deserved win, considering the album’s cultural impact and her smooth, groove-driven guitar contributions. So, how did the award-winning collaboration come about?
“Bruno hit me up,” she reveals in an upcoming interview with Guitar World. “And when we initially talked on the phone, he didn't tell me what he was working on. He asked me to listen to records and get my opinion of what I thought they used for amps, strings, and picks. I'm nuts about that stuff; I've done my homework.
“We had a series of conversations; he would send me records, and I would send him records. Then, eventually, he asked, ‘Would you want to play on a song?’ I said, ‘Of course!’ I didn't want to invite myself onto someone’s record, but I hoped he would ask me to be on it.”
Working with Mars and his team proved to be a very different experience from auditioning for Prince, which Feingold did in 2005.
“Bruno was different from Prince. He knew what he wanted,” she recalls. Feingold clarifies that this doesn't mean Prince didn’t know what he wanted – rather, he was testing her.
“He was being cryptic on purpose. Bruno was different; he had ideas of what he was looking for, and I certainly had ideas. I got all his ideas done, gave him extra tracks of things I heard, and let him comp however he wanted.”
At the 2022 Grammys, An Evening with Silk Sonic won a total of four awards: Best R&B Song, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance (a tie with Jazmine Sullivan), and Record of the Year.
Guitar World's full interview with Ella Feingold will be published later this month.
