Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings: A Little Funk And Soul

Enlarge image i

Sharon Jones leads the Brooklyn-based funk and soul band The Dap-Kings, whose music mixes percussion, trumpets, guitar, organs, bass and Jones' sultry vocals.

courtesy of the artist

Sharon Jones leads the Brooklyn-based funk and soul band The Dap-Kings, whose music mixes percussion, trumpets, guitar, organs, bass and Jones' sultry vocals.

courtesy of the artist

Sharon Jones has come a long way from Riker's Island in New York City, where she worked for several years as a prison guard. Jones is the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, an old-school funk and soul group based in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The group has just released its fourth album, I Learned the Hard Way, which captures the old soul sound of the 1960s and 1970s by using analog recording equipment.

In a 2007 interview on Fresh Air, Jones and bassist Gabriel "Bosco Mann" Roth joined host Terry Gross to discuss the band's style and the songwriting techniques employed on its third album, 100 Days, 100 Nights.

The Dap-Kings, whose members write and arrange many of their songs, also backed Amy Winehouse on several tracks from her album, Back to Black, including "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good"; they also played on Michael Buble's album Crazy Love. The group's cover of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" was recently featured in the movie Up in the Air.