Whenever I think of songs with great bass lines, "Rescue Me" always comes to mind immediately and although Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings don’t quite capture the brilliance of that original song by Fontella Bass (no coincidence in the name I don’t think) it is a very respectable, high energy cover.
Not that previous song of the day artists aren’t interesting but Sharon Jones is interesting on a whole different level. Ms. Jones was born in Augusta, GA, home of James Brown, in 1956 but it would be more than fifty years later that she would begin to see the rewards of her long musical labors with her first successful album 100 Days, 100 NIghts that would deliver the success that she had worked so hard for.
While Sharon Jones was gigging at nights in bands and singing at wedding receptions in Brookl\yn where her family had moved, she was holding down day jobs like guarding armored cars and working as a corrections officer at Rikers Island, notorious for housing the hardest of the hardened criminals. She was convinced that she had what it took to be a successful singer.
When her album/CD hit she got a role in a Denzel Washington movie, toured with Lou Reed and at Michael Buble's request did a duet with him. She and her backing band the Dap Kings, who were also the backing band for Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album/CD, toured constantly. Sharon Jones was finally breaking big...and then she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Sharon Jones’ last album included a track “I’m Still Here”.
Stay safe and well...and unfortunately Sharon Jones left us in 2016.