{"id":13471,"date":"2017-10-19T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/10\/19\/augustin-mawangu-mingiedi-bandleader-of-konono-no-1-dies-at-56\/"},"modified":"2017-10-19T13:13:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T13:13:00","slug":"augustin-mawangu-mingiedi-bandleader-of-konono-no-1-dies-at-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/augustin-mawangu-mingiedi-bandleader-of-konono-no-1-dies-at-56\/","title":{"rendered":"Augustin Mawangu Mingiedi, Bandleader Of Konono No. 1, Dies At 56"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Flanagan<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n
Enlarge this image<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Augustin Mawangu, bandleader of the Grammy-winning Congolese band Konono No. 1, died on Monday, Oct. 16.<\/p>\n


\n Vera Marmelo\/Courtesy of Konono No. 1
\n <\/a><\/b>hide caption<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b><\/div>\n


\n Vera Marmelo\/Courtesy of Konono No. 1
\n <\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Augustin Mawangu Mingiedi, leader of the Congolese group Konono No. 1<\/a>, died on Monday, Oct. 16 after a months-long illness related to complications from diabetes, a representative for the band confirmed. He was 56 years old.<\/p>\n

Konono No. 1 was founded between 1965 and 1968, by his father, Mingiedi Mawangu. After the elder Mawangu’s death<\/a> in April 2015 at the age of 85, Augustin Mawangu Mingiedi became the group’s leader. Now a third member of the family, Augustin’s son Makonda, will take the reins of the celebrated group. “We are devastated,” the band wrote<\/a>. “But Konono No. 1 are indestructible.”<\/p>\n

Augustin’s instrument, like that of both his father and his son, was an amplified version of the likembe<\/em>, a handheld instrument sometimes referred to as a “thumb piano” (and also known elsewhere as the mbira <\/em>or karimba<\/em>, among other names). It is played by plucking metal tines connected to a resonator board. Mingiedi Mawangu electrified the instrument using found parts, yielding a mesmerizing distortion that Westerners compared to the sounds of experimental rock and electronic music.<\/p>\n

\n
[embedded content]<\/div>\n
YouTube<\/b><\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“At the beginning, my father went very often to collect car parts like springs, wire, metal discs, old car alternators, magnets … all that sort of stuff, as well as the wood, which he used to make the likembe,” Augustin told the BBC in a 2015 profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n