Final Sharon Jones album to be released

Daptone Records have announced that the final album from Sharon Jones will be released November 17th.

Daptone Records have announced that they are to release Soul of a Woman, a collection of the last recordings that soul icon Sharon Jones sang before her sad and untimely death last year. During the recording of her 2013 album Give The People What They Want Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she was unable to perform while she endured treatment for the illness. Her fight with cancer was documented in the film Miss Sharon Jones (available on Netflix), and despite the aggressive nature of the cancer she revealed she had beaten it and was set to resume her recording and performing career.

However, that was sadly not to be. In 2015 while promoting Miss Sharon Jones, she revealed that the cancer had returned. Then in 2016 it was reported that Jones had suffered a stroke watching the US presidential election results come in, with her jokingly blaming Donald Trump. Sadly, Jones didn’t recover and passed away on 18 November 2016.

Sharon Jones’s last album, Soul of a Woman, is set to be released 17 November.

Sharon Jones found fame later in life. A gospel singer with an incredible voice, she would be dubbed the female James Brown by critics and fans for her powerful live performances. She first met Gabriel Roth, founder of Daptone Records, in the mid nineties while doing background on a session he was organising.

Fast forward to 2002, and Roth had recruited Jones to his Daptone label and recorded her first album with the Daptone house band the Dap-Kings, the excellent Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. The album was a success, the perfect combination of infectious groove from the Dap-Kings and a powerful vocal performance from Jones. The album was followed up by six more albums: Naturally, 100 Days 100 Nights, I Learned The Hard Way, Give The People What They Want and It’s a Holiday Soul Party.

Two singles from the new album have been released already, ‘Matter of Time’ and ‘Call of God’. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bosco Mann, bassist and producer for Jones, said of recording the album: “Every time she took the stage, it always felt like Sharon was leaving it all out there. So maybe it was more intense for the band towards the end, knowing what was coming, but that’s the only way she knew how to sing her whole life – like it was her last day on earth.”

Soul of a Woman will be released by Daptone Records on 17 November 2017.