‘Playing for Paul is an amazing thing’

When he was a child, Bakithi Kumalo looked to his mother and uncle for an escape from apartheid in his Soweto, South Africa home.

His mother was a singer and his uncle played the saxophone at local gigs in the township outside Johannesburg.

“I just grew up in a musical family and I used to enjoy and watch them happy, playing music and singing all the time, and I said ‘I want to be just like them,’” the bassist said. “With the problems in South Africa, the music was the best thing to spend time and just focus.”

Tonight, Kumalo will join Paul Simon onstage at the Pacific Amphitheatre to play songs from Simon’s classic 1986 record, “Graceland.”

Meeting Simon was another life-changing experience.

Kumalo was 29 and recording in South Africa at the time. After hearing Kumalo and local musicians jam, Simon invited him to play on the world-beat inspired album.

“It was just an unexpected surprise, of course,” he said in a telephone interview. “I just was just doing this and not even thinking that someday I would be playing and traveling the world.”

Kumalo no longer needed to carry a note granting him permission to record outside his hometown because of government-imposed apartheid. He headed for the United States — his first trip on an airplane — and played on the Grammy Award-winning album.

Although he said he was incredibly excited, Kumalo was nervous that his bass-playing skills might not meet Simon’s standards, but when they began to play, everything clicked.

“I was nervous the music he would like us to play would be very hard, American music — I mean I loved American music, but I didn’t think I was ready to play that,” he said. “But when we met, he was cool, and just loved every groove, and we’d just jam on some grooves.”

Kumalo has expanded his repertoire, releasing three solo albums since “Graceland” debuted. His most recent, “Transmigration,” released by Guru Project, embraces American jazz and rhythms while maintaining his African roots.

“I’ve been here, playing with a lot of great bass players, so I’m just really inspired and played music that people can understand here,” he said.

Even with his new projects, and demand from other high-profile musicians, including Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Josh Groban and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, Kumalo plays with Simon whenever he can.

“Anytime [Simon] calls, I like to be available because that’s the reason I’m here,” Kumalo said. “He’s just opened the doors for me. I don’t know if I’d be in Los Angeles or anywhere — everything is happening to me because of him.”

As the end of the fair approaches, so does Kumalo and Simon’s tour, which has had them on the road for about a month.

“It’s great, it’s beautiful … and it’s just sad we are about to end. We have only three more shows to go,” he said. “Playing for Paul is just an amazing thing.”

For more information about Kumalo, visit boneinthenose.com.

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