Sharon Jones: A Soul and Funk Traditionalist

As a child of the 1960s, soul singer Sharon Jones grew up with the sounds of James Brown and Aretha Franklin in her hometown of Augusta, Ga., the same birthplace as the Godfather of Soul.

"Soul is a feeling and actually I think it comes down to just having a natural gift because I think certain things just can't be learned," said Jones. "You can learn notes and learn how to sing, but to get it to have it come from the heart and move people, that's the soul. I'm giving people everything I got every time I get on stage. I become another person."

At the age of 3, Jones and her mother migrated to Brooklyn, but Jones would always return to the South to spend her summers. She began singing at a very early age and honed her skills in the church.

"I was born in the 1950s so I was around when segregation was going on. I'm glad I was living in New York because I got away from a lot of that stuff and I only saw it when I would go down there to visit. But at the same time, if I wasn't around the church and gospel music, I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing."

Jones sang her first solo, "Silent Night," at the age of 5 in the church that has continued to remain a big part of her life. For more than 30 years, Jones has played the organ at the same Universal Church of God in Queens. She wrote her first gospel tune at the age of 18 entitled, "Call on God."

"All my life I wanted to sing and I've always felt that God gave me a gift, and to be able to travel and sing and know that people enjoy it is what makes me happy," said Jones. "I'm just now beginning to enjoy my life and I feel like I'm at a point where I'm being heard."

As a young child, Jones wanted to break out and sing nonreligious soul and funk music but her mother prohibited her from doing so until she was 18.

Jones has since released singles on the New York-based independent label Daptone Records including the latest work with the label's house band, The Dap-Kings, called "Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings."

She first got involved with the label in the late 1990s when it was still called Desco Records, founded by house musician, songwriter and producer Gabriel Roth.

"One day, these guys came along, these young little white boys, and I went into the studio and they were talking about funk and I wondered what do these boys know about funk?" recalled Jones. "They are really serious about their music. Over the last six or seven years they have got the record label going and Gabe is writing all of these songs. I told I him I thought he was reincarnated and he's really a 55-year-old black man."

Jones, now 47, and the eight-piece band the Dap-Kings released the record in 2002 and began touring in the states and overseas where they've acquired quite the following in England. The record reflects a blast from the past with its straight-ahead funk sounds that celebrates the 1960s and 1970s heyday of soul music.

"The whole idea is to bring back the old, but we're new. When I first started recording with the band, the youngest member was 16 and we first toured London and opened for Maceo Parker (James Brown's former saxophonist). A lot of the audience members were also young and I think I was one of the oldest ones in there," said Jones. "It was so cool when the fans would come up to me and would tell me I inspired them and that they could feel the music."