Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Soul of a Woman

Daptone

WITH her own gospel number Call on God making the other perfect bookend, the last album by the late Sharon Jones with Brooklyn’s soul combo par excellence opens with a classic from the pen of guitarist and irrepressible emcee, Binky Griptite. Matter of Time is not just a statement of incurable optimism about the certainty of the coming of a just world, but has Jones, in the knowledge that she her cancer is killing her, singing: “I can’t wait too much longer.”

If so it proved, after a reprieve that included an unforgettable visit to Scotland, this is one joyous memorial recording. Thankfully only a few tracks from the planned ballads-with-strings set survived to the final release. Trumpeter Dave Guy’s When I Saw Your Face is fine, but bassist and producer Bosco Mann’s Girl (You Got To Forgive Him) is both a bit blokey in sentiment and sonically bombastic. It is the up-tempo stuff by which we shall remember her, and there is fine variation in that here, from the sophisticated rhythmic funk of Sail On! to Joseph Crispiano’s lighter Come And Be A Winner and the percussion section’s fun Rumors.

The range of the writing from within the ranks of The Dap-Tones is certainly admirable, but their efforts would be as nought but for the inimitable and much-missed Jones.

Keith Bruce