The Bass Line You Know By Heart Is Coming Back to Long Beach, Bakithi Kumalo brings 40 years of Graceland to Bright Eye Beer Co. on September 1 — with a stage full of young musicians behind him
There's a bass line you've known your whole life, whether or not you know you know it.
It's the one that comes tumbling out of the middle of "You Can Call Me Al" — that impossible, joyful run that sounds like it's falling downstairs and landing on its feet. Play it for anyone over the age of thirty and watch their face change.
The man who played it is Bakithi Kumalo. And on Tuesday September 1, 2026, he's playing it at Bright Eye Beer Co. in Long Beach.
The City of Long Beach and the LBNY Arts Council are thrilled to announce A Tribute to 40 Years of Graceland — a benefit concert celebrating four decades of one of the most beloved albums ever made, led by the bassist who helped make it, and performed alongside the all-star young musicians of Kids Rock for Kids.
Presale tickets open Wednesday, August 5th 2026
Why Bright Eye Beer Co.
Here's the part we love most about this story.
Two years ago, Bakithi Kumalo played a quiet, informal night at Bright Eye Beer Co. with a handful of Long Beach musicians. No fanfare. Just a room, some friends, and a bass.
On the drive home, his phone rang. It was Paul Simon's manager. Pack your bags. You're back on tour.
That night in Long Beach turned out to be the last still moment before the road came calling again. Now he's coming back to the same room — this time with a hall full of kids behind him and a hometown crowd in front of him.
Some venues are just where a show happens. This one is part of the show.
From Soweto to the world
Bakithi Kumalo grew up in Soweto, South Africa, playing professionally as a child and working the Johannesburg session circuit as a teenager. He was in the room when Paul Simon arrived to record what became Graceland.
Released in August 1986, the album won the Grammy for Album of the Year and introduced audiences around the world to South African township music. Kumalo's fretless bass sits at the heart of it — including that famous solo, which is built as a musical palindrome: the second half is the first half played backwards. Four decades later, it's still one of the most quoted passages in the history of the instrument.
In the years since, he's circled the globe many times over with Paul Simon, recorded with a long list of major artists, and built his own catalog as a bandleader. He's also become something else: a genuinely devoted mentor to young musicians.
The evening begins at 5:00 PM. Bakithi opens the show onstage with Studio Noir Music School and the famed Long Beach Ukulele Orchestra. He'll then share the story of his musical journey — Soweto to New York to stages on every continent — before the Graceland set begins.
The band is the kids
Kids Rock for Kids is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that gives talented young musicians the things that are hardest to come by: real stages, real rehearsal space, real mentorship, and a real community of peers. It removes the barriers that push so many teenagers out of music at exactly the age they're finding their voice.
Their bands have played Times Square, the International Come Together Music Festival, and Governors Ball. Their shows have featured young musicians from around the world, and their fundraising has supported children's causes locally and globally.
On September 1, they're not the warm-up. They're the band.
Meet Studio Noir and the Long Beach Ukulele Orchestra
If you've spent any time in the Long Beach music scene, you know Benjamin Metzger — or you know him as Benoir.
A guitarist, producer, and educator who studied jazz guitar and studio music at the University of Miami, Metzger settled in Long Beach in 2007 and founded Studio Noir on West Beech Street. It's since become one of the city's essential musical institutions, teaching guitar, bass, piano, drums, saxophone, vocals, ukulele, strings, composition, and engineering to students of every age.
His commitment to this city goes well past the studio door. After Hurricane Sandy, he organized fundraising concerts every Sunday night for five straight months, helping the local music community play its way back — work that's been recognized by both Nassau County and the City of Long Beach.
The Long Beach Ukulele Orchestra, which Metzger co-founded in the fall of 2013, is the kind of thing this town does best: an all-ages, all-comers ensemble that meets weekly at Studio Noir and has grown into a real performing group, playing concert halls, art festivals, and fundraisers across Long Island. And it isn't only ukuleles — the ranks include drummers, singers, guitarists, and string players. Anyone willing to learn is welcome.
Bring everyone
This is a family-friendly, all-ages event, and we mean that as an invitation, not a disclaimer.
Picture the room: grandparents who bought Graceland the week it came out. Parents who grew up on it. Kids hearing it for the first time, watching musicians barely older than they are play it live. That's the whole point.
Come to dance. The songs are built for it.
What your ticket builds
Every dollar from this show goes to the Long Beach Arts Council.
We exist to make Long Beach a place where art happens in public — on the boardwalk, on the porches, in the library, on the beach, in the storefronts. We build coalitions across the city's arts organizations, put working artists to work, and create free and low-cost cultural programming for everyone who lives here or visits.
2026 has been our biggest year yet:
PorchFest returned for its 4th annual edition, turning porches across the city into stages
Earth Love LB Art Walk brought 13 new boardwalk murals to life with 40 participating artists and a run of sold-out community workshops
Booth to Paradise, our beach ticket booth painting project with the City of Long Beach, drew more than 100 artist applications across two phases
A free Shakespeare production — Much Ado About Nothing with Eastline Theatre Company at the Long Beach Public Library
And here's what we're building toward: a Pop-Up Arts Center — the Long Beach Arts House — a dedicated physical home for exhibitions, workshops, rehearsals, and youth arts programming, opening in 2027 alongside PorchFest's 5th anniversary season.
Long Beach has the artists. It has the audience. What it doesn't have yet is a room of its own.
Every ticket to this show gets us closer.
The details
What: A Tribute to 40 Years of Graceland — a benefit for the Long Beach Arts Council Who: Bakithi Kumalo with the Kids Rock for Kids All-Stars; opening set with Bakithi Kumalo, Benjamin Metzger, Studio Noir Music School, and the Long Beach Ukulele Orchestra When: Monday, September 1, 2026 — 5:00 PM Where: Bright Eye Beer Co., Long Beach, NY Tickets: Presale opens Tuesday, August 5, 2026.
Admission: Family-friendly, all ages welcome.
Forty years ago, an album taught a lot of people that music doesn't stop at a border. This September, the man who played its most famous bass line is going to teach a room full of Long Beach kids the same thing — and let the rest of us dance to it.
We'll see you at Bright Eye.
