Style and grace were front and centre last Wednesday night at Sala Rosa. The style came from the Dap Kings, a funk infused New York band headed by bass player Bosco ”Bass” Mann. In this age of electronic music, his band brings to stage a live presence that had the sold out crowd at Sala Rosa grooving from beginning to end. The grace came from the “Queen of Funk,” Miss Sharon Jones. With a voice that captures your spirit and leaves you with goose bumps, she was undeniably “Soul sister number one,” as they call her in France.
Sharon’s roots run deep. She started singing gospel music in Augusta, Georgia (native town of James Brown) when she was 5, with a rendition of “Silent Night”. She’s been a workhorse ever since. When I met with her at 5pm on the day of the show, she was barely able to walk because of lower back pain. ”The show must go on!” she exclaimed. Indeed, by the end of the interview, she already seemed to be in better spirits.
When asked to describe what soul music meant to her, her eyes light up: ”Whatever comes from the heart, reaches the heart. So I figure when I’m on that stage digging deep down in my heart with the Dap Kings, I’m giving a part of myself to the audience. To be soul is real, it’s live. It comes from within. They [the audience] becomes part of me. You actually feel me feeling my music,” she said.
What Sharon described was happening during the concert, as the crowd provided her with energy that she clearly channelled in her voice.
”I know what I want in life,” said Sharon. ”I’m comfortable. Can’t nobody play games with me. When you know something is yours and God gave you the gift, people got to hear me and see me, see that Soul. The Dap Kings and I were brought together for a reason.”
It’s as if Sharon is marked by a sense of duty when talking about her live performances. ”As you can see, I am in pain. Performing takes away all the pain. I get a lot [of energy] just by the fact that I know I got to get out there. I got to do my job. When I hear myself being introduced I get goose bumps. I feel that energy and it gets me going. I’m connecting with the crowd. There can be ten people out there in the crowd and we will give them an encore,” she said. This is an artist that cares about her audience. Perhaps this is why they sell out most of their shows.
Naturally, Dap Kings sophomore album incorporates everything that is right about soul music. Bosco explained, ”It’s about making honest music. Sharon and I have really developed a mode a communication. When I write songs for Sharon I know about the things that are going on in her life. When I write it down, the magic comes from what she can put into it. The thing that people tend to forget about soul music or any type of music is that’s it’s not necessarily about being innovative . For me, it’s about expressing, as in some kind of pure crude expression of the human soul.”
For more crude expressions of human soul check out www.daptonerecords.com.
