N'DAMBI
TUNIN UP & COSIGNIN'
US Cheeky-I Productions, 2001
I really liked a couple of tracks on N'Dambi's
debut set Little Lost Girls Blues (Soul
Express 4/99), although I noted that some other
cuts were a bit too hip hop-flavoured to my
taste. However, on her second set, titled Tunin
Up & Cosignin' (US Cheeky-I
Productions 0929) N'Dambi really does the Erykah
Badu trick: she completely abandons the
hip-hop sounds and turns into a full real
instrumentation with a strong jazz overtone - and
the end result is simply spellbinding.
The new album is a double CD set with over 2
hours of playing time. The CD contains 18
full-length tracks (many of them over 7 minutes),
of which 11 songs were already featured on her
debut set, but the updated versions are recorded
live in the studio with a much jazzier feel and
with a real instrumentation.
For yours truly, much of this album is a dream
come true, exactly what I'd love to hear from
this new breed of Badu influenced soul-jazz
songstresses. It's simply amazing how these
ladies manage to appear trendy and fresh - and
they simply play music that is 70 % of jazz and
30 % of soul and funk! If you look at the musical
setting, their background musicians include real
meaty drums, upright bass, trumpet, trombone,
tenor sax, rhodes... - just bad ass musicians, no
samples, like Karen Bernod put
it in our exclusive interview last winter!
The first two tracks are pure bliss. Ode 2
Nina starts in a composed, quiet mood with
N'Dambi interpreting the stylish melody line just
over the piano backing, and then the other
instruments (drums, upright bass, tenor sax,
trombone, trumpet) gradually join the assembly,
and N'Dambi also starts to get more impassioned
with her vocal delivery. "I'm not
complaining, I'm just tired, I'm just tired of
your comings and goings and leavings and
stayings..." wails N'Dambi, and at that
point you'll agree that this is really "nu
classic" calibre of 3rd millennium
jazz-soul.
The following track People is equally
breathtaking. It's dominated by Gino
"Lockjohnson" Iglehart's
ingenious drum playing and Braylon Lacy's
magical upright bass lines, and N'Dambi
immediately gets into the groove with her jazzy,
mellow yet soulful vocal reading. Maybe this kind
of music should not be called soul at all, but
I'm sure that our readers who loved the album by Fertile
Ground will also adore this kind of
"soulful jazz" stuff. I certainly do!
Of the newly recorded versions of the songs
featured on her debut set, my number one pick is See
U In My Dreams, which is refashioned into a
stylish jazz version. It starts as a mellow piano
& bass -based swayer, and then it adds more
swing to the groove and turns into a truly
wonderful jazz-soul exercise - N'Dambi also
demonstrates her scat abilities.
The second disc - which consists of nine songs
all featured on N'Dambi's debut set - is more
soul-oriented, but opens with an utterly funky
number, the new version of the prime track from
N'Dambi's debut set, Lonely Woman. This
time, the tune is set in a heavy back beat
(should I say "fatback" beat?), a
murderous bass line and some rumbling keyboard
playing - the new version is nearly 12 minutes
long; the track has been combined to another song
titled Eva's Song.
Some tracks are dominated by well-chosen samples,
like Can't This Be Love leans strongly
to the horn riff sampled from Earth Wind
& Fire's Can't Hide Love, Deep contains
elements of George Clinton's Sloppy
Disc, Sunshine borrows Roy Ayers'
Everybody Loves the Sunshine and I
Think 4 Sure gradually turns into a
re-reading of Stevie Wonder's As.
Still, all these tracks also use the same group
of real musicians, featuring a drummer, a bass
player, two keyboardists (Hammond organ, Rhodes)
plus a trumpet and a trombone player.
My personal favourites among these new soul/funk
readings are the enjoyable horn-laden Can't
This Be Love and the strong, mid-stepper What's
Wrong with You, which was excellent already
in its original form, but is delicious in its new
version, too. Jason Davis crowns
the meaty swayer with his robust tenor saxophone
solo.
All in all, N'Dambi's new CD is a must-have item
for anyone who liked N'Dambi's first own album,
as well as for anyone who digs the new Badu-led
neo-soul genre. -IT
