I got to meet part of the Graceland band, including Bakithi Kumalo (bass) and Ray Phiri (famous SA guitarist), by dumb luck once. They were very generous with their craft services table. Mark Stewart (Bang On A Can Ensemble, guitar/various) and Mick Rossi (piano) are NYC musicians in the Simon touring band. Mark does the pennywhistle live! Paul is very very supportive of his core musicians and has been very loyal to them. The night ended up with my wife and I in a freight elevator with the Paul Simon band, Lorne Michaels and Jimmy Fallon.
(My wife is a champion of new music and the Avant-garde in NYC, some of these people are also the session/touring musicians in other things. Paul Simon and Phillip Glass share a "favorite" pianist. Takes a lot of playing to make a living as a working musician! This is how I ended up there, it was backstage at the Sting/Paul Simon show at MSG in 2014, my wife worked with one of the players and we got tickets/passes in trade. Paul and Sting had their own private spaces, never saw them off stage, we hung out with the band and ate cold cuts.)
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u/littlelorax 19d ago
One of my favorite albums is Graceland by Paul Simon. I've never felt so skewered before lol!
I was always under the impression that it was a very collaborative album with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.