April 25, 2023 Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Sharon Jones RIP & The Dap Kings, 2015

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a revival movement of mid-1960s to mid-1970s style funk and soul music. They released their debut album Dap Dippin' in 2002, the first of seven studio albums. Their 2014 album Give the People What They Want was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.[3] Following Sharon Jones' death in 2016, the band released the posthumous album Soul of a Woman in 2017 and a compilation of cover songs in 2020.

1996–2000: The early years with Desco Records

In the mid-1990s, artist Phillip Lehman and musician Gabriel Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) founded a band called the Soul Providers, and began recording an album of James Brown-inspired instrumentals and vocal collaborations with deep funk recording artist Lee Fields. After hearing Sharon Jones, a corrections officer turned singer, record backing vocals for a Fields track, Lehman and Roth recorded a solo track of Jones singing "Switchblade", a song which had been intended for a man's voice. This track along with another Jones solo, "The Landlord", were included on the Soul Providers debut album, Soul Tequila, released in about 1996 on the now-defunct French label Pure Records.

Lehman and Roth then started a new label in Brooklyn, New York called Desco Records, with a studio and distribution office in the basement of the Desco vacuum cleaner store on West 41st Street. They reissued Soul Tequila as a vinyl-only LP and renamed Gimme the Paw, and included only one of the Jones collaborations, "Switchblade".

Desco showcased its artists with revue-style shows and released their music on vinyl 45-rpm records. Jones, backed by the Soul Providers (who had become the Desco house band), released three 45s for the label. Recording dates were deliberately omitted from the labels and the records were often marketed as being released in the 1970s. Two other Soul Providers albums were released, an instrumental soundtrack to a Sam Lung kung-fu film, The Revenge of Mr Mopoji, credited to Mike Jackson and the Soul Providers, and a solo album by Lee Fields, Let's Get a Groove On, for which the Soul Providers provided the backing.

2000–2003: The birth of the Dap-Kings and Daptone Records

In 2000, Lehman and Roth parted ways, and the Soul Providers disbanded. Lehman set up Soul Fire Records; Roth started Daptone Records with Sugarman 3 saxophonist Neal Sugarman. A new group, the Dap-Kings, was formed, consisting of label owners Roth on bass and Neal Sugarman on saxophone, plus original Soul Providers: guitarist Binky Griptite, organist Earl Maxton, percussionist Fernando Velez, and trumpeter Anda Szilagyi. Joining them were two young members of The Mighty Imperials, whose album Thunder Chicken was the last release on the Desco label: tenor saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss, who both had also been touring members of The Soul Providers previously.

The band secured a summer residency at The Boite, a club in Barcelona, Spain, and recorded an LP, Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, in 2001. A few hundred copies were pressed, so that sales during the residency would provide financial support for what would have otherwise been a financially draining trip. Promotional copies were sent to funk DJs and reviewers, and the album was officially released as the first LP and CD on Daptone Records in 2002, and attracted an enthusiastic review from quarterly hip-hop and funk magazine Big Daddy.

Following the album, three 45s not on the album were also released: "What If We all Stopped Paying Taxes", released in 2002 just ahead of the U.S. election, was a militant anti-war statement denouncing the Iraq War. "Genuine (parts 1 & 2)" (2004) was a hard funk record. Their cover of "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", released in 2005, was recorded for a KFC commercial in 2002 but was never used.

2003–2006: Naturally and personnel changes

About this time Maxton and Szilagyi left the band to become members of Antibalas, a New York-based afrobeat band. Trumpeter Dave Guy and guitarist Thomas Brenneck joined in their stead. In 2003, the Daptone Recording Studio, with a sixteen-track analog tape machine, was open for business. The band intended to record two albums back-to-back, but during the final sessions of the first of these albums, Roth suffered serious eye injuries in a car crash, and only one LP and CD, Naturally, was released in 2005. This album included a mix of both soul and funk influences; the production and recording values were crisper than the slightly duller "scratchy 45" sound of the first album. The band embarked on an international promotional tour.

Leon Michels left the band soon after the release of Naturally to help start a new label, Truth & Soul Records, and released a solo LP that was originally intended for Daptone, Sounding Out the City, credited to El Michels Affair. When Lehman closed the Soul Fire label and moved to the Bahamas, the back catalog of Soul Fire was handled by Truth & Soul Records, who, along with Soul Fire, used many of the same artists in their recordings, including Lee Fields, Steinweiss, Brenneck and Michels himself. The Dap-Kings took on Ian Hendrickson-Smith, a local saxophone player who had released several jazz albums under his own name.

2006–2015: Subsequent albums

In late 2006, the band recorded a third studio album, 100 Days, 100 Nights. A non-album funk-style single, "I'm Not Gonna Cry", was released in April 2007, and the album was released in October along with two B-sides/bonus tracks: "Settlin' In" and "The Collection Song".

Further albums included I Learned the Hard Way (2010), Give the People What They Want (2014), and the holiday release It's a Holiday Soul Party. Also in 2014, Jones and her band performed at the Hamilton, Ontario Supercrawl.

2016–2020: Jones' death and final releases

The recording process Soul of a Woman began in 2015, during which Jones was fighting pancreatic cancer; she had been first diagnosed in 2013. A film about Jones' battle with cancer, Miss Sharon Jones!, was released in 2016 with a soundtrack compilation. Jones died on November 18, 2016, at the age of 60. No specific announcement has been made regarding the band's future; however, the Dap-Kings have subsequently performed at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 and were the house band for Joe's Pub Presents: A Holiday Special, which taped in November 2016.

The Dap-Kings completed the music for the album during this time and released Soul of a Woman on the year anniversary of Jones' death in 2017. They were active as a live performing group through 2018; of note, they played a series of summer shows with Jon Batiste. Two years later, in September 2020, the group announced Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Rendition Was In, an album compiling cover songs recorded over the years. The record was released on October 23, 2020.

😭 She was so great. RIP Ms. Jones, you will be missed.

In 2009-ish Mallory was asked to sing a few opening songs for the Burbank-Burroughs Annual Alumni Picnic. But the songs had to be Americana, like the Star Spangled Banner. One song suggested was My Country Tis of Thee. Mal, being young and wanting to sing what she wanted to sing, i.e. blues or funk, came to me begging for choices.

I went to YouTube typing in Americana school songs & found This Land performed by Ms. Jones.

Mal listened & performed the song surprising everyone with the song & her voice. This is how I found Ms. Jones