WOMAD

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

From United States

The water board of Augusta, Georgia must be putting something into its supply. Not only does the town boast James Brown as its most famous son, it’s also the birthplace of one Sharon Jones. Who she? Only the inheritor of Brown’s soul-funk crown, that’s who – a woman cutting the kind of old-school records that we all thought disco had killed off halfway through the 1970s. Indeed, when the music world turned its back on good old steam-driven soul, Sharon was forced to take up employment as a corrections officer in a New York City jail. But those musical ambitions couldn’t remain under lock and key forever. A mid-90s hook-up with the great independent funk label Desco Records set her free with the partnership unleashing a string of terrific singles (black vinyl, seven inches, 45 rpm!). Now with two albums under her belt for Brooklyn’s Daptone label, she’s also proved to be a terrific live draw, that soaring voice (with its obligatory gospel apprenticeship) matched by the tack-sharp backing of the impeccable Dap Kings. This is funk exactly as it was invented – thick, greasy and overflowing with soul. As Sharon herself surmised when promoting last year’s long-player Naturally, “if you can’t feel the music on this album, then you must be a dead ass!”In A Few Words… 100%-proof, old-school funk.