The music world lost one of its brightest and most talented veteran stars on November 18, 2016 with the death of Sharon Jones.
Jones hadn’t been with us long enough when she was taken at the age of 60 by a recurrence of the cancer she had been fighting since 2013. She didn’t get her big break until later in life. Even though she had done backing work, she wasn’t able to make it as her own artist and worked as a corrections officer at Rikers Island in New York and as an armored car driver for Wells Fargo.
Then, in 1996, she made her first record for a French label, Pure Records, which led to her signing by Daptone in the United States and her pairing with the band the Dap-Kings. Between 2002 and 2015, they released six studio albums and a compilation. Jones was also the subject of a documentary in 2016.
While she was fighting cancer, she struggled to record one last album which will be released on November 17, one day short of a year since her death. Soul of a Woman is divided into two halves, according to Daptones’ Gabriel Roth in an interview with Rolling Stone, with side one being the more live and raw sides while side two is “more moody and orchestrated”.
The track list:
Matter of Time
Sail On!
Just Give Me Your Time
Come and Be a Winner
Rumors
Pass Me By
Searching for a New Day
These Tears (No Longer for You)
When I Saw Your Face
Girl! (You Got to Forgive Him)
Call on God
