The Secret of the Bass Break in Paul Simon’s ‘You Can Call Me Al’

There are several segments to Paul Simon‘s “You Can Call Me Al,” the lead single from his lauded 1986 album, Graceland, and every one of them is a marvel. But the song’s intricate bass break stands out as perhaps its most fascinating moment. For some time it was unknown just how exactly bass player Bakithi Kumalo, a Johannesburg native who had met Simon in South Africa in 1985 as he began the Graceland sessions, managed such an elaborate, top-speed riff — one that turned out to be almost physically unrepeatable. “It was May 10 [1986], my birthday,” Kumalo recently recalled, noting that they re…

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