Tim Luntzel was born and raised in Palo Alto, California where at the age of 11 he began playing the bass guitar. In high school, repeated and involuntary exposure to the music of Count Basie and Duke Ellington eventually led to a fledgeling enthusiasm for jazz, manifesting itself in scholarships to the Monterey Jazz Camp, the coveted Louis Armstrong Award, a tour of Europe and enrollment at the Berklee College of Music.
In 1994, while still at Berklee, Tim undertook the study of the double-bass, garnering further scholarship dough for his seeming ease in handling this very difficult transition.
In the years following graduation ('94-'98) Tim went on to lead the popular and critically acclaimed Venus Band and play a pivotal role in the founding of the forward-looking hip-hop band Red Time, at the same time freelancing for such artists as George Garzone, Frank Tiberi and Danillo Perez. He furthered his study of the contrabass under the tutelage of Ron Carter and later Marc Johnson.
Tim Luntzel moved to Brooklyn in Autumn of '98, and immediately became busy filling people's bass-related needs with artists such as Sasha Dobson, Jesse Harris, Smokey Hormel, Richard Julian, Jenny Scheinman and Leah Siegel as well as founding his own soul-jazz quintet, the Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout.
He has shared a stage and/or a studio with: Clay Aiken, Chris Bailey, Jean-Michel Bernard, Steven Bernstein, Mira Billotte, The Bloomdaddies, Tracy Bonham, Bright Eyes, Chris Brown, The Bruces, Charlie Burnham, Jim Campilongo, Captain & Tennille, Knox Chandler, Lou Christie, Nels Cline, Cocktail Angst, Natalie Cole, Jason Collett, Jay Collins, Rodney Crowell, Sasha Dobson, John Doe, Heather Eatman, Kate Fenner, Anton Fier, David Foster, Connie Francis, Bill Frisell, Rachelle Garniez, Larry Goldings, Teddy Goldstein, Michel Gondry, Jack Grace, Guaranteed Swahili, Jamey Haddad, Emmylou Harris, Jesse Harris, Leslie Helpert, Robin Holcomb, Smokey Hormel, Wayne Horvitz, Sten Hostfalt, Shahzad Ismaily, Jim James, Norah Jones, Richard Julian, David Kolker, Nathan Larson, Chris Lee, Gina Leishman, Rachel Loshak, Mat Maneri, Cat Martino, J Mascis, Willy Mason , Paul Moore, Matt Munisteri, Renee Olstead, Van Dyke Parks, Danilo Perez, Preacher Boy, Bernard Purdie, Questlove, Ilkka Rantamäki, Mickey Raphael, David Rawlings, Red Time, Mauro Refosco, Marc Ribot, Johnathan Rice, Peter Rowan, Jenny Scheinman, Tony Scherr, Neil Sedaka, Paul Shaffer, Steve Shelley, Leah Siegel, Bill Sims, Jr., Nicky Skopelitis, Melvin Sparks, Maria Taylor, Russ Titelman, M. Ward, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Hugh Watson, Doug Weiselman, Gillian Welch, The Wollesens Marching Band, Timothy Young, YVEL...