Bakithi Kumalo on Fretless Bass, ‘You Can Call Me Al,’ and His Unlikely Breakthrough
Back in the mid eighties, South Africa was in a tough spot. Tensions were high, gigs were rare, and if you were a musician, chances are you were playing more protest rallies than studio sessions. Bakithi Kumalo was working as a mechanic to help support his sick mother when he got a call. Someone named Paul Simon was looking for him. Bakithi had never heard of the guy.
His boss started singing Sounds of Silence to jog his memory. Still nothing. But Bakithi knew this could be a real shot. He took the bus to the studio, grease still on his hands, carrying a beat up fretless Washburn with no case. When he walked in, Simon was sitting on the floor playing with toy cars.
Bakithi barely spoke English at the time, so a blind translator helped out. But once he started playing, none of that mattered. Paul smiled. Engineer Roy Halee threw a blanket over the amp and dialed in a tone that changed everything. That fretless sound, raw and melodic, became the foundation of something special.
After the first round of recording, Simon flew the band to New York to continue the project. Bakithi had never been on a plane before. First class. Champagne. Seventeen hours to JFK. And once they landed, one of pop music’s most iconic basslines came to life. You Can Call Me Al was everywhere. Bakithi first heard it on the radio in a township taxi. He told the driver, “That’s me.” The driver did not believe him.
The solo in that song, the one everyone still talks about, was recorded in a single take. On Bakithi’s birthday. Paul had the engineer flip the tape and play it backward. Bakithi had to learn how to play it that way for the tour. At Radio City Music Hall, Marcus Miller stood side stage just to watch him pull it off live.
It all started with one call. A fretless bass. And a musician who said yes when it counted. For bass players everywhere, Bakithi’s story is a reminder that tone, timing, and trust in your own sound can take you further than you ever imagined.
No Treble CEO Jody Miller is a Chicago-based bassist, guitarist, engineer, and producer best known for his bass gear demo videos and as the co-host of The Bass Nerds podcast.
I first met Bakithi Kumalo when he came to NYC to work with Paul Simon in ’84-’85. He was playing with Jonathan Butler at a CD 101.9 FM Jazz concert at the Twin Towers. After the show, I was talking with him about his 6-string fretless bass. He took it out of his hard case to let me play it. His wife and daughters were playing in the park-like grounds of the WTC grounds. It was a beautiful day, and after a long while, Kumalo gathered his family together to head home to Long Island. I told him, I’d walk with him and chat. As we were walking, seemingly to nowhere, he stops and said “I forget where I parked the car. I said, take out you keys and there may be a clicker with an alarm button. We could click it and it may signal your cat. Then he said he had lost keys. Oops! I asked him to empty all his pockets, maybe they were buried deep in his jeans. I then went through the wads of money and papers and found a parking receipt with the name and address printed on it. I walked him over to the parking garage and he got his car. The end of a perfect day! We became friends for life. On my FB page there are many photos of us, and some of me playing his basses, many custom-made for Paul Simon’s performances and recordings. My wife and I have seen him at Simon’s performances at the Felt Forum, Paramount Theater, MSG and various NYC Venues, and I have gone to many concert with Kumalo’s bands, workshops and clinics at The Music Den in Ranolph, NJ. Along with being a great musician, Kumalo is a great story-teller.