| Bakithi Kumalo & Steve Adelson concert
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Last night I went to a free concert in Hecksher Park on Long Island, featuring Bakithi Kumalo and Stick player Steve Adelson.
Bakithi Kumalo is one of my favorite bassists, so I was very excited to see this concert. Before the concert, my mom was going to put something back in the car while I waited where we were sitting. When she was on her way, I looked up and, lo and behold, Bakithi and my mom were waving at me from the other side of the seating area. I went over there and talked with him for a minute; my mom had told him that I was a fan of his and that he had inspired me to play the fretless bass. After that, I didn't stop grinning for fifteen minutes ("Cool, I met Bakithi Kumalo!").
Each band played for about an hour, starting with a mini-interview of each bandleader by the MC (I think he was someone on the Huntington Arts Council, the organization that presented the concert).
The Steve Adelson Band played first. He had a vibraphone player, a drummer and a percussionist (I don't remember any of their names). Their music wasn't my cup of tea, but they were very good, especially the vibraphone player.
Then the Bakithi Kumalo Band played. The band consisted of Bakithi on bass and djembe, Morris Goldberg on pennywhistle and saxophone, a guitarist/keyboardist, and a drummer. Morris Goldberg was great, but for the first couple of songs he wasn't loud enough. They eventually brought his volume up to an appropriate level. The guitarist/keyboardist was okay, but I didn't agree with his choice of playing a classical guitar for about half of the songs because that didn't really fit with the music. His other gear included a Korg keyboard and a Gibson guitar that I didn't recognize (it may have been some form of the Les Paul with a double cutaway). The drummer wasn't that great; it sounded like they put him in the band at the last minute.
I got the impression that the Bakithi Kumalo band doesn't always have the same people in it, and maybe they hadn't rehearsed enough in this configuration. They didn't sound prepared. It was still fun to watch Bakithi, though, and here's more about him:
Unfortunately, no fretless bass in this concert. He used some interesting techniques. He did a little bit of slapping and tapping and some other percussive things. A few times he put his left hand over the top of the fingerboard instead of underneath; that's something I've never seen before. Of course, this morning I tried it.
I've noticed that there's a certain thing he likes to do in I-IV(ii7)-V progressions. He often plays a descending arpeggio over the ii chord. I noticed this in a couple of Paul Simon songs and he did it at least twice last night. I'm not sure if that's something of his or if it's a South African thing. Examples: "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" in that lick he plays up high, and in "Proof" during the chorus.
Last night he was playing a Washburn XB-925, or something similar. He endorses Washburn, so it may be a signature model. The upper horn on his bass is different from the standard model and his bass has a slightly different knob configuration. | 
