Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings
They talk the talk...and they can definitely walk the walk. In fact, there's very little Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings cannot do! Like many rhythm and blues entertainers, Sharon Jones began performing in church at a very young age. Later she would make her living with a combination of sporadic session work as a mostly anonymous voice on various dance records (sometimes credited as Lafaye Jones), singing with wedding bands and a handful of day jobs, which included stints as both a prison guard at New York's notorious Riker's Island and an armoured car guard for a bank. In 1996 she was called in to sing back up at a Desco Records studio session for '70s soul legend Lee Fields.
Over the next four years, Jones sang frequently alongside Lee Fields, Joseph Henry and Naomi Davis as part of the Desco Super Soul Revue, and paved the way for Jones and the Soul Providers' first international tour in 1999, where her command of the stage earned her an overnight title as the Queen Of Funk.
Unfortunately, just as the Jones and the band began to gain momentum, internal business conflicts caused the demise of Desco Records in the early part of 2000. Although the Soul Providers would not perform again, it wasn't long before Jones and Mann would regroup in another formation. Now for the first time, the group would be billed as Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.
In 2001, the group landed a summer residency at a club in Barcelona. Knowing that the trip would be a financial disaster without having a recording to sell, Mann penned a few new tunes and assembled the band to record. A rough eight-track recording studio was rigged up in the basement beneath the Afro-Spot, a local kung-fu dojo that doubled as an afrobeat nightclub and headquarters for Antibalas' frontman Duke Amayo. After a few weeks of tracking and mixing, the band's debut album was completed. Dap Dippin' With Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings would be Jones' first full-length recording. In late 2001 Daptone Records was formed.
Over the next three years, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings would tour extensively and build steadily upon a growing reputation as the unrivalled frontrunners of old-school Soul and Funk music.
By the time they returned to the studio in 2004, the Dap-Kings roster read like a veritable who's who of the day's Soul and Funk scene, most of whom were bandleaders in their own right. Behind the ever-increasing power and stage presence of Jones, the band was becoming a force to be reckoned with.
The Dap-Kings came to record their second record in March of 2004. In 2005, Naturally hit the streets and set Jones and the Dap-Kings loose on a relentless touring schedule. By 2006, audiences in Europe, Canada, and Australia were packing venues to see Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.
In the winter of 2006, the band slowed its touring schedule to make time for a return to the studio. The resulting 100 Days, 100 Nights was their greatest achievement to date. The raw fire and Soul which Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings consistently pour into their music makes them one of the greatest live acts of the day.
See it for yourself at Southbound.