Congotronics surely has to rate as one of the world music phenomena of 2005.  In short, this is urbanized village music played in ethnic neighborhoods of Kinshasa.   The first in a series of expected Congotronics CDs features the 25-year-old group Konono No. 1, somehow overlooked in all the fuss over Kinshasa ’s rumba, soukous and ndombolo all these years.  To the astonishment of many music aficionados, Konono No1 quickly sold 35,000 copies, and that was before they released the album in the and launched their fall, 2005, tour.  Afropop Worldwide will focus on the full Congotronics story in an upcoming 2006 program.  In the meantime, here’s a review of Konono No. 1’s Chicago concert, contributed by Daniel Godston, with photographs from the group’s New York shows at Joe’s Pub and SOB’s by Banning Eyre . 

You get transported to another planet where the music is unlike anything you’ve ever heard, and the sound immediately pulls you in.  That’s what it’s like listening to Konono No. 1 live. On Friday, November 11, 2005 this eight-person group from Kinshasa, Republic of Congo filled the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago with an infectious sonic brew of likembé (a thumb piano that is bigger than a kalimba, but smaller than a mbira), snare and conga drums, agogos (African cowbells), singing with syncopated phrasings, and dancing.  From the first notes Konono No. 1 played until the last song of their encore, the music was instantly recognizable as their own.  The first sounds were a full ensemble, quarter-notes-in-unison figure, and then the opening number broke into an uptempo beat driven by the insistent, syncopated sixteenth-note rhythm that Mbiyavanga Mdofusu played on the snare covered with a stack of several cymbals. 

Konono No. 1 has a sound that is distinct in many ways.  The group doesn’t play songs with chord changes; rather, their songs are modal explorations, and the bass lines are often hypnotic eighth-note lines played on the bass likembé. The group’s pitch range covers a lot of sonic terrain—from the high snare beats and whistle interjections, to the mid-range of the voices and high notes on the likembé, to the low notes of the bass likembé—your ears get a lot of octaves of sound.  The songs’ durations reminded me of Fela Kuti songs that build and sustain for 15 to 20 minutes.  Often there were no full stop break between songs, but rather full ensemble unison figures that segued into the next song.

Konono No. 1’s intergenerational makeup contributes to its unique qualities.  The group has three generations of musicians.  Solo likembéist Mingiedi Nawamgu is the eldest of the group, and the other solo likembéist, Makuntima Nawamgu, is younger than him.  Bass likembéists Veta Nawamgu and Makondua Nbuta are young men.  Percussionist Mbiyavamga Mdofusu is older than the snare player, Visi Vincent, and the two singers Mbuka Misiala and Memga Maku are middle-aged, and the energy they put into their performance was powerful and youthful. 

The group’s performance was visually stunning.  The first thing that grabbed my attention were the pair of huge alarm cone speakers on poles—one on each side of the stage—that looked like the speaker cones used for public safety alarms.  [These cones are their PA system back home, though on this tour, they were just for show.]  When the group started playing, each member has a different way of moving to the music that contributed to the flow of the performance.  The singer Menga Maku spryly wriggled around with arms outstretched and punctuated rhythms with bursts from his whistle, and the female singer Mbuka Msiala moved around with subtle gyrations reminiscent of dancing seen in Congolese pop music shows.  Mingiedi Nawamgu had a look of deep concentration on his face as he played wonderful looping and swirling melodies on likembé, and then his face would break into a bright smile.  Mingiedi and Makuntima would sometimes switch back and forth between likembé and agogos.