N’Dambi: The Sound, The Style & Her Funktabulous “Pink Elephant”

This is the first in-depth story I did with one of the baddest singers, songwriters and performers to EVER hail out of Dallas TX, N’Dambi (circa 2009): if you consider yourself a soul music lover and STILL don’t know about her sinuous and smoky pipes, get familiar via picking up her latest CD, 2009’s Pink Elephant and kick yourself on the way to the iTunes/Best Buy while downloading her other spellbinding releases.

Since N’dambi is as classy and cool as she is talented, I wanted to make sure she gets some shine for her work and that you don’t miss out when her next masterpiece drops. Read on and add her to your rotation, thank me later. 🙂

It took four years, over 1200 miles of distance and a lifetime of cultivating her southern brand of soul for N’Dambi to create Pink Elephant, but as the CD’s title indicates, the collection is too big and bold to ignore and poises the Dallas native on the fast track to receive the recognition and acclaim that her talents so richly deserve.

Back home for Tuesday’s listening party from Greenville’s Good Records, the singer, songwriter and Oak Cliff native says that it wasn’t a writer’s block that kept her from recording for so long, it was transitioning into a major label and finding a producer that would enhance, not inhibit, her ideas. “I always made records on a whim or a vibe” before collaborating with Leon Sylvers III (of Lakeside, Shalamar and Gladys Knight fame), she says, “and he helped me to put more thought into it. I used to write and re-write, just get caught up in the poetry of it all, but he taught me that sometimes, less is more. It allowed me to be as creative as a I could.”

And judging from the rich tapestry of songs, it’s a fruitful match. The soulfully salty “Can’t Hardly Wait” is already a fan favorite, as well as the hope-fueled “Nobody Jones” and “L.I.E,” the vividly -rendered tale of a family man’s double life (“Tossing and turning til’ his wife is spooning him, he tries to keep the worry down, down, down. But the note he found on the front lawn, tells him his secret is out”).

What’s her choice for the second single? “What It Takes.” “It’s an ‘I got your back’ song, which you need after the tone of ‘Can’t Hardly Wait,’” she laughs. “It makes you feel good about relationships and just balances it all out.”

For those who missed her meet-and-greet, N’Dambi will return to perform at TBAAL’s Muse Café on Oct. 30 and 31. Will she be in the house with another local soul artist she used to collaborate with, Erykah Badu? Probably not. She doesn’t rule it out for the future, but as for now, N’Dambi feels that her artistic vision is one that she best pursue alone. “Creatively, when you grow, you want to express who you are. It’s been important for me to create my own messages and right now, that’s what I’m focused on.”

So, what are N’Dambi’s other immediate goals? To take her Pink Elephant as far as it can go and to enthrall old and new fans with the messages in her music. “I hope that fans can find themselves in the stories and the lyrics and interpret what they hear in a way that relates to them. I want them to find something there that they can connect with.”
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