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The Latest Breaking News from Bakithi Kumalo

“My boss said, ‘Paul Simon’s in town, and they’re looking for you in the studio. Here’s the money. Take the bus’”: When Bakithi Kumalo got the call to audition for Paul Simon’s 1986 multi-platinum album

Kumalo had been helping out a local mechanic when he was invited to Ovation Studios in downtown Johannesburg

Guitar World

“The bass strings broke – I had to tie them together. I would slide down the strings, cutting my fingers and getting blood all over the bass”: Bakithi Kumalo looks back at his formative years touring South Africa

Kumalo made a radical change in his bass technique during a tour of South Africa – before he ever played a note with Paul Simon

Guitar World

“I don't look at the fingerboard, I listen to it. All of my fretless basses have no fret lines. I can't play on a lined fingerboard”: How Bakithi Kumalo’s swung, fretless bassline helped create one of Graceland’s defining sounds

Like much of Paul Simon’s Graceland, the 1985 session for The Boy In The Bubble took place at Ovation Studios in downtown Johannesburg

Guitar World

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“I had no idea what the hell I was doing! I couldn’t speak English. But Paul was so kind. Through a translator, he said, ‘Just relax. I love the way you play’”: How Bakithi Kumalo became go-to bassist for Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper and Tedeschi Trucks Band

The versatile South African bassist is best-known for his epic bass break on You Can Call Me Al, recorded on the cheapest fretless he could get his hands on. He shares his unlikely low-end journey to Graceland, how he mentors the next generation – and why he has 12 albums…

Guitar World

“I was forced to play fretless because it was the cheapest bass available”: Paul Simon’s Graceland bassist Bakithi Kumalo defined the 1980s fretless bass sound – but the session pro says he knew nothing about it before making the album

The South African bassist helped create one of the most distinctive tones and techniques of the era, but maintains the decision was a very happy accident

Guitar World

The 20 greatest bass solos of all time – from the fastest ‘lead bass guitarist’ to the only bass solo James Jamerson ever recorded

We count down moments of bass guitar genius from Tal Wilkenfeld, Flea, Victor Wooten, John Myung and many more

Guitar World

Paul Simon: “People have tried to cop that bass solo, but it’s physically impossible” – how engineer Roy Halee created the iconic bass break on Call Me Al

Bakithi Kumalo: “Listening back, I didn’t know what happened – I thought it was from God, you know?”

Guitar World

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Paul Simon's Graceland: Fretless bass playing would never be the same again

1986's hit album that opened people's ears to African music and the free-flowing fretless lines of Bakithi Kumalo

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