When Steel Talks extends Happy Birthday greetings to world-renowned master bassist Bakithi Kumalo

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Bakithi Kumalo recording at Basement Recordings

Bassist Bakithi Kumalo

Bakithi Kumalo is one of the iconic bass players in the world. He is a featured bassist on the ground-breaking music production "Belle Eau Road Blues" by panist Garvin Blake.


Found at the heart and soul of modern-day anthems that have shaped our sense of music and culture as we know it, award-winning, multi-instrumentalist Bakithi Kumalo (Bah-Gee-Tee Koo-Ma-Low) is ranked among the top 50 bass players in the world by Bass Player Magazine. With a career spent touring alongside artists including Hugh Masekela, the Grateful Dead, Sting, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Gloria Estefan, Derek Trucks, Miriam Makeba, and many others, his abilities extend to his solo work as a singer, percussionist, pianist and songwriter—in addition to his bass playing—presenting a culmination of diverse influences from throughout his life.


Kumalo is most known for his fretless bass playing on Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland, in particular the bass run on "You Can Call Me Al"

Born in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa, and surrounded by relatives who loved music and actively performed, with traditional African rhythms and a cappella vocal groups all around him. Kumalo learned to follow the groove of the bass lines and developed licks based on the left-hand work of accordion players in the township bands. Landing his first job at the age of seven filling in for his uncle's bass player, he continued to work as a session musician in South Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was soon recognized as a top session bassist, accompanying international performers during their South African tours.

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