Sunday, January 20, 2008
For Sharon Jones, success is sweet at any age
By GERRY GALIPAULT
Sharon Jones has so much soul power, she could make a jailhouse rock.
The New York-based singer, with her band The Dap-Kings, is finding success late in life, at age 51, in a business littered with teenagers and twentysomethings churning out generic hits.
She’s reveling in the attention, mindful of all the years she struggled — all the years she toiled at tough jobs.
Like her two-year stint as a prison guard at Rikers Island, New York’s massive jail facility.
“When I was at Rikers, I was singing with neighborhood bands and doing some studio stuff here and there,” Jones said in a recent phone interview. “One night, I made the mistake of telling the inmates that I sing. I was joking around; they were joking, too, but they were serious ... they said they wouldn’t lock up until I did a verse and a chorus of ‘The Greatest Love of All.’
I was worried that I was going to have to call the squad team in. So I sang it, and then said, ‘Now lock up.’ They cheered me on. One of the inmates had to make them all go back in and then when he got to his cell, he said ‘Miss Jones, you can close mine now.’ ”
Riot averted.
Then there were the years she spent as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo. She even packed some heat, a .38 revolver.
“I would go with the trucks to ATMs at Citibanks,” she said. “I would wear regular clothes, and I would step up and watch the guys put the money in the machines. I did that for a couple years, then I did some security over on Broadway, watching some of the big buildings. It prepared me for this; it got me ready.”
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Long before Amy Winehouse spearheaded last year’s neo-soul revival, Jones and The Dap-Kings were stirring up memories of 1960s R&B on the nightclub circuit. Then a pair of albums, “Dap Dippin’ With Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings” (2002) and “Naturally” (2005), captured the essence of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and all things ’60s and ’70s soul. It caught the ear of producer Mark Ronson, who recruited The Dap-Kings to play the authentic funk/soul sounds on Winehouse’s breakthrough “Back to Black” album in 2007.
A third album from Jones and The Dap-Kings, “100 Days, 100 Nights” (on Daptone Records), kept the ball rolling in early October.
“If it took Amy Winehouse for people to learn about me and The Dap-Kings and Daptone Records, that’s a good thing,” Jones said. “I have nothing bad to say about her. I just wish her the best.
“I met her last summer in Florida. Her manager treated her like she was a superstar, and all I wanted to do was hang out with her, because I’m pretty down to earth. I’m like, ‘Let’s take a picture,’ and the manager’s all ‘No, no pictures.’ But she seemed like a nice girl.
“The only thing I have to say is that she’s in my prayers, that she really needs some friends to pull her up, not push her down. That environment that she’s around, she needs to let it go.”
Born in Augusta, Ga., and raised in New York, Jones idolized Augusta’s favorite son, James Brown. She had the thrill of a lifetime in the fall of 2006 when she got to meet the Godfather of Soul after a concert in Italy.
“It was a few months before he passed away Christmas Day,” she said. “I literally waited backstage for 45 minutes till he came out ... he looked me in the eye and said, ‘God bless you, daughter,’ and they took a picture of us. It’s on my MySpace site. I could feel his heart beating through my fingers because I put my hand around his waist. I looked him in the face and for some reason I knew I wasn’t going to see him again. He didn’t look well; he looked so weak.”
Another thrill was a chance to appear in a movie. She has a small role in Denzel Washington’s “The Great Debaters.”
“You’ll see me in the first three minutes of the movie,” Jones said. “I was singing and dancing all over the juke joint. I enjoyed the experience, and I was so looking forward to my little lines. But they cut two of them out, and they cut out my song ‘That’s What My Baby Likes.’ But that’s OK; I’ll wait for the director’s cut to come out on DVD.”
Success is better late than never for Jones, who never doubted for a moment that people would appreciate her music.
“In my younger days, they would say it’s all about luck, this and that,” she said. “But I knew God gave me a gift and I knew that people would accept me for my vocals and not the way I look or my age.”
Sharon Jones has so much soul power, she could make a jailhouse rock.
The New York-based singer, with her band The Dap-Kings, is finding success late in life, at age 51, in a business littered with teenagers and twentysomethings churning out generic hits.
She’s reveling in the attention, mindful of all the years she struggled — all the years she toiled at tough jobs.
Like her two-year stint as a prison guard at Rikers Island, New York’s massive jail facility.
“When I was at Rikers, I was singing with neighborhood bands and doing some studio stuff here and there,” Jones said in a recent phone interview. “One night, I made the mistake of telling the inmates that I sing. I was joking around; they were joking, too, but they were serious ... they said they wouldn’t lock up until I did a verse and a chorus of ‘The Greatest Love of All.’
I was worried that I was going to have to call the squad team in. So I sang it, and then said, ‘Now lock up.’ They cheered me on. One of the inmates had to make them all go back in and then when he got to his cell, he said ‘Miss Jones, you can close mine now.’ ”
Riot averted.
Then there were the years she spent as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo. She even packed some heat, a .38 revolver.
“I would go with the trucks to ATMs at Citibanks,” she said. “I would wear regular clothes, and I would step up and watch the guys put the money in the machines.
Long before Amy Winehouse spearheaded last year’s neo-soul revival, Jones and The Dap-Kings were stirring up memories of 1960s R&B on the nightclub circuit. Then a pair of albums, “Dap Dippin’ With Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings” (2002) and “Naturally” (2005), captured the essence of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and all things ’60s and ’70s soul. It caught the ear of producer Mark Ronson, who recruited The Dap-Kings to play the authentic funk/soul sounds on Winehouse’s breakthrough “Back to Black” album in 2007.
A third album from Jones and The Dap-Kings, “100 Days, 100 Nights” (on Daptone Records), kept the ball rolling in early October.
“If it took Amy Winehouse for people to learn about me and The Dap-Kings and Daptone Records, that’s a good thing,” Jones said. “I have nothing bad to say about her. I just wish her the best.
“I met her last summer in Florida. Her manager treated her like she was a superstar, and all I wanted to do was hang out with her, because I’m pretty down to earth. I’m like, ‘Let’s take a picture,’ and the manager’s all ‘No, no pictures.’ But she seemed like a nice girl.
“The only thing I have to say is that she’s in my prayers, that she really needs some friends to pull her up, not push her down. That environment that she’s around, she needs to let it go.”
Born in Augusta, Ga., and raised in New York, Jones idolized Augusta’s favorite son, James Brown. She had the thrill of a lifetime in the fall of 2006 when she got to meet the Godfather of Soul after a concert in Italy.
“It was a few months before he passed away Christmas Day,” she said. “I literally waited backstage for 45 minutes till he came out ... he looked me in the eye and said, ‘God bless you, daughter,’ and they took a picture of us. It’s on my MySpace site. I could feel his heart beating through my fingers because I put my hand around his waist. I looked him in the face and for some reason I knew I wasn’t going to see him again.
Another thrill was a chance to appear in a movie. She has a small role in Denzel Washington’s “The Great Debaters.”
“You’ll see me in the first three minutes of the movie,” Jones said. “I was singing and dancing all over the juke joint. I enjoyed the experience, and I was so looking forward to my little lines. But they cut two of them out, and they cut out my song ‘That’s What My Baby Likes.’ But that’s OK; I’ll wait for the director’s cut to come out on DVD.”
Success is better late than never for Jones, who never doubted for a moment that people would appreciate her music.
“In my younger days, they would say it’s all about luck, this and that,” she said. “But I knew God gave me a gift and I knew that people would accept me for my vocals and not the way I look or my age.”
# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 2:27 PM 
