{"id":460757,"date":"2026-09-11T18:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460757\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T18:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:00:13","slug":"bakithi-kumalo-brings-graceland-legacy-to-long-beach-herald-community-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460757\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakithi Kumalo brings Graceland legacy to Long Beach | Herald Community Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades after his bass playing helped define Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cGraceland,\u201d Bakithi Kumalo brought the music to Long Beach, performing alongside young musicians at a Long Beach Arts Council<\/a> benefit at Bright Eye Beer Co.<\/p>\n

The Sept. 1 event celebrated the 40th anniversary of \u201cGraceland,\u201d Simon\u2019s seventh solo studio album. It opened with a performance by musicians from Studio Noir\u2019s Long Beach Ukelele Orchestra and also featured Kids Rock For Kids, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provides performance and development opportunities for young musicians. Kumalo performed with both groups and helped mentor the young performers.<\/p>\n

Kumalo, 70, grew up surrounded by music in Soweto, South Africa. His mother, Elizabeth Kumalo, and grandmother, Susan Kumalo, both sang. His uncle, Quebec Kumalo, played saxophone. Every weekend, Kumalo said, tribes would gather for special occasions, singing and beating drums.<\/p>\n

In the late 1980s, Kumalo recorded music for the Graceland Album. He moved to the United States permanently in 1992, married, and had three children \u2014\u00a0 Nathi, 39, Bee, 30 and Didi, 28 \u2014 each of whom can play at least three instruments. Before learning to read English, Kumalo said, he often played bass for his children, turning music into a weekend game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would play a note and if they wanted to go out on the playground and all that stuff, they [had] to sing the right note,\u201d Kumalo said.<\/p>\n

Kumalo lived in Brooklyn before moving to Bethlehem, Pa., but has vacationed in Long Beach for more than five years. He met Caroline Bailly, the Arts Council\u2019s vice president, six years ago after seeing her son, Paul Vivot, now 14, perform in a band at The Cabana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Kumalo and Bailly are working to create opportunities for Long Beach musicians, especially young performers. When Bailly sent him a video of a young musician playing double bass, Kumalo said, he forgot all about his nerves.<\/p>\n

Kumalo said the Ukelele Orchestra was amazing, and that the Kids Rock For Kids performers had the nuances of the music down. Bailly also came away from the evening encouraged about what could follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe positive energy that transpired that night was beautiful,\u201d Bailly said. \u201cI think it\u2019s the beginning of something that might be bigger. There may be a show in January.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studio Noir\u2019s founder Benjamin Metzger<\/a>, also has a rapport with Kumalo. The pair performed together for Arts In The Plaza and at the Iridium on Broadway in Manhattan. Metzger said the night was emotional and magical, and highlighted the opportunity it presented for musicians of all ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust thinking about the logistics of the acoustics, the way it was set up was just magical,\u201d Metzger said. \u201cAnd then we just hung out at the end at the very end listening to him tell stories [of his tours].\u201d<\/p>\n

Kumalo hopes to create more musical opportunities in the future. His goal, he said, is to give back to the next generation through music and give more experienced young musicians the opportunity to teach the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had no idea that my journey would end up here,\u201d Kumalo said. \u201cI just played music because I love music and I got involved wherever this music. But it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about giving the next generation the gift they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades after his bass playing helped define Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cGraceland,\u201d Bakithi Kumalo brought the music to Long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[181679,181682,131,129810,133,181681,132,181680],"class_list":["post-460757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-bakithi-kumalo","tag-kids-rock-for-kids","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-arts-council","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-musicians","tag-long-beach-news","tag-paul-simon-graceland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}