Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – Soul Of A Woman

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ final studio album, Soul of a Woman is a lush, orchestral masterpiece. A true testament to the life and career of Daptone’s fearless leader and one of the world’s greatest performers.

When Sharon Jones passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, she died not as a soul revival artist but as a soul artist, period. The distinction is subtle but meaningful. What sounded in the 2000s like a throwback to the era of 1960s and 1970s funk and R&B eventually became something very modern and of its moment. The Dap-Kings may be one of the best backing bands around, and Daptone Records a more diversified and adventurous label than many people think, but it was Jones who rooted the music in the here and now instead of the there and then. A lot is made of her experience as a corrections officer and armored truck guard, but she worked in wedding bands and did session work for decades before she recorded her first single, at 40 years old, and her first full-length album, at 46. She conveyed an unshakable belief that soul music could speak to this or any other moment in time, and her voice, so insistent and expressive, could transform a song like Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately”—or even Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”—into something new and timely.

On her final, posthumously released album, Jones alternates powerful ballads with the upbeat dance numbers that were staples of her live shows, confirming her stature a contemporary soul-music icon.