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Africa Mix

NPR's Heavy Rotation: Emmanuel Nado on Habib Koite's "L.A."

By Matt Martin
Published May 28, 2014 at 6:58 AM PDT
Habib Koite
Emmanuel Nado

This week, NPR's Heavy Rotation series features Emmanuel Nado, co-host of Africa Mix, heard Thursday nights from 9-11pm on KALW.

Emmanuel highlighted the song "L.A." by Habib Koite.  Hear the Morning Edition feature with Emmanuel here. 

"For his latest album, Soo, Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist Habib Koite let go of his standard rhythm guitar and replaced it with the banjo, one of the few times I've heard a contemporary African pop artist use what's essentially an African instrument. "L.A." is particularly great; I like the way Koite's banjo player uses the instrument at times as rhythm guitar, at times for the melody. The lyrics are funny for those who understand Bambara, the popular language of the Malian people — they poke fun at Koite and American blues artist Eric Bibb's tour in the U.S., and compare various landscapes of California to those of Mali." --Emmanuel Nado, Africa Mix

Africa Mix
Matt Martin
Matt Martin was KALW’s general manager from 2006 through 2018. Under his leadership, KALW grew into one of the most productive and innovative stations in public radio. Programs launched at KALW during Matt’s tenure as GM include the award-winning local newsmagazine Crosscurrents, the design podcast 99% Invisible, and the Spanish-language narrative journalism program Radio Ambulante. He helped create the station’s Audio Academy, a year-long program aimed at developing new talents in public radio, and led the first broad-based strategic planning process in the station’s history.
See stories by Matt Martin