Soul Queen Sharon Jones says: “They Jumped on Us”

My great amount of respect for Sharon Jones – the fiery Brooklyn soul singer – jumped a few notches today after reading this profile in the NYTimes.

She takes to task those who have lately jumped on the so-called ‘retro-soul’ bandwagon through the music of Amy Winehouse. Winehouse, the hugely successful, rake-thin British singer, and her producer, Mark Ronson, created a top-selling LP with all manner of soul flairs, and used Sharon’s band, the Dap-Kings, as the house recording band.

The problem is that many people think Amy came first, and that Sharon – a 51-year-old former Riker’s Island prison guard, and a veteran of music for years over – is the new kid on the block. Which is flat-out untrue. She’s quoted in the article:

“They came to us to get the sound they wanted behind their music. We were just sitting here minding our own business, doing our little 45s and albums, and all of a sudden they were like, ‘I want your sound.”

Regardless, Jones and her band, the Dap-Kings, are experts at producing tight, funky soul records that harken back to the golden age of soul. The sound of the group is timeless. The songs are good-to-great, the talent is top-notch, and soul and fire are on full display. The article, written by Ben Sisario, dwells on things like the label being “so devoted to its pursuit of verisimilitude in 1960s-style soul and funk” and tagging the band as “the most obsessive and skillful revivalists of the bunch,” but if you ignore the pigeonholing, it’s worth a read. Even better, though, is listening to Jones.