Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
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Free Music Notes for 100 Days, 100 Nights
Free Music Review: Yes Virginia-there is a Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings!
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, as one would expect this time of year, the naysayers abound out there. A friend of mine who is in charge of my favorite spiritual newspaper, asked me to respond to a young writer who posed a question. I will print the question and my response as follows:
Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Metamorpho. Papa says "If you see it in The Daily Seer, it's so". Please tell me the truth, is there a Metamorpho?
Virginia O'Heehaw
Yes Virginia! There is a Metamorpho! He exists just as surely as love, pure spirit, generosity and shameless self-promotion exists! Your little friends are wrong. Never bother with them again. They will only bring you down. Metamorpho not exist? What a cruel, cruel ruse to use on a dedicated fan such as yourself. Hundreds, thousands of years from now people will still believe in Metamorpho. He is pure energy thought and will always be around to spread joy and try to save humanity from themselves. Of course, this takes alot of money and people to join in the crusade. A recruiter will be visiting you soon Virginia. No Metamorpho? Indeed!
Yes dear readers, I am sure you can sense the urgency, compassion and concern in my response. A Seer's job is never done.
Anyway, I am here to review this remarkable c.d. by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. This is just too good. They inhabit an almost bygone era of stax-motown-soul-rythmn and blues with essential horn section. Very reminiscent of 60's Aretha in many ways. You've got Sharon exuding sass and stance and attitude effortlessly. Her vocals are serious vocals - tough, smooth and finds the groove time and time again. The material is well suited as well. You, of course, get the heartache and pain along with the "your time is up and now you'll pay" motif. Sharon again conveys her empowerment with "Nobody's Baby". She's no fool- and neither was Aretha. Time and time again, each of these songs knock you out with powerful grooves. They have bits and pieces of this genre that sound familiar. But, the artists here move the concept of this sound into their own arena.
The Dap-Kings are superb players. Everything here works. I am especially fond of the horns working in unison and complimenting the funk and groove. But, again, the music here could have definitely come out of the 60's. But like we wise Seers say, if something is good, it doesn't matter when it came out. This is why some music is timeless. That is why Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are here now.
If you want to hear a great vocalist and band in this genre you will definitely not be disappointed. This stuff kicks.
Anyway this will make a great gift to give a music lover in your life this holiday season. Do make sure you get it. You faithful fans can trust me. I would not lead you down a broken path to poisoned kool-aid. Oh no.
Now I must go. Virginia's father is asking for a retraction. I fear he will cripple the poor girl psychologically for the rest of her life. Oh well.
With a long white beard and red Seer's cap--your Metamorpho
Free Music Review: Soul music lives!
Hit: 5 Stars
I was late, like most people were, in discovering Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, but I am so glad I did! Recently I heard the title cut being played in the Virgin Mega Store, and was totally blown away by the music and the vocalist. Turns out I had been seeing this CD on display for a LONG time - around the time when Amy Winehouse blew up. Yet Sharon and her group were getting little to no publicity, doing the same type of music as the troubled beehive-styled songstress. We see all of the acclaim that Winehouse got for her BACK TO BLACK CD, and I admit I really loved that CD because of the retro-soul style. But let me tell you, without this phenomenal band backing her up, Winehouse's CD would have been just average. With a much better vocalist at the microphone, 100 DAYS, 100 NIGHTS is pure soul and I love the fact that SOUL MUSIC IS BACK and it's because of artists like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings!
This CD takes you back to the days when soul music ruled the airwaves, when there were REAL musicians, REAL singers, and such a thing as professionalism and style. When I hear what is passing for so-called R&B these days, it's enough to make you vomit - minimally talented, overhyped and overrated "vocalists" warbling meaningless excuses called lyrics over 20 and 30 year old looped samples and computer generated beats. That is NOT what R&B and soul is. Thank God that there is an audience out here that demands the REAL thing, like what is featured on this disc.
Think of how important the Funk Brothers were to the Motown Sound of the '60s, of how essential James Brown's band was to his musical compositions, throw in the grit, funk and soulfulness of those old Atlantic, Atco and Stax records coming from down South and you'll get the gist of what this band is all about. Ms. Jones is a vocal powerhouse and her voice suits the retro-soul genre well. Had she been around back in the day, it's for certain that she would have given other high-profile soul divas some SERIOUS competition. My favorites: "100 Days, 100 Nights", "Nobody's Baby", "When The Other Foot Drops, Uncle", "Something's Changed", "Humble Me" (this is my absolute favorite of all the songs - has an Otis Redding-ish kind of feeling to it), "Keep On Looking" (you will be thinking of the JB's when you hear this one!) and "Answer Me", which is a gospel song with a Memphis soul twist. Fantastic!
I intend to pick up the other CDs by Sharon & the Dap-Kings, because if 100 DAYS, 100 NIGHTS is any indication of what else is out there by them, then they have a new fan in me. Lovers of real soul music cannot afford not to own this.
Free Music Review: Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
One day I walked into a CD shop and I hear this music. I go to the clerk-"hey man, what is playing," and he hands me the case of 100 Days, 100 Nights. I check the label, thinking some engineer someplace found a reel to reel box in a closet marked "Jones, S, working master. 7/23/67," and got an indie labal to issue the album. You do hear stories like this, and I am sure I am not the first guy this happened to when they first caught Sharon Jones.
My heart leapt even futher with joy when I found out this was BRAND NEW MUSIC. Not only that; the story line got even better: 100 days was actually getting some airplay, and moving from the shelves. WOW!
What we have here, folks, is a classic soul album, recorded by a master singer. Jones and her band mix soul and the blues old school, as in, yes, this could have been recorded on 7/23/67. Jones' work is bassically what you might hear on an Areatha Franklin or Betty Levette record--she has a gospal belters voice and the music, laced with beautiful hornwork by the Dap Kings, dervies from the EXACT same influences. From what I understand, this album was recorded on tube equiptment.
This is not, as a bad critic would say "classic R&B with a modern feel. SHUT YOUR EYES AND REPEAT THIS PHRASE THREE TIMES "THERE ARE NO MODERN INFLUENCES ON 100 DAYS 100 NIGHTS! THERE ARE NO MODERN INFLUENCES ON 100 DAYS 100 NIGHTS. THERE ARE NO MODERN INFLUENCES ON 100 DAYS 100 NIGHTS"
I find it encouraging, no, heartening, that this album got made and has done well. Maybe, just maybe, people want to hear real music again, not a fake, not a derivative, the real thing.
Wouldn't it be intersting if Marrhia Carrie tried something like this. She has the pipes. Does she have the taste?
Free Music Review: STELLAR
Hit: 5 Stars
My girlfriend said that Sharon Jones is what happens when Tina Turner and James Brown have an illegitimate child and raise it funky. While I don't know if I can go QUITE that far, I will say that it's probably not the most entirely horrible description of what Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings embody. They are kind of a complete throwback band with a throwback singer. I guess the right word is ANALOG.
They aren't a digital band. They have horns and guitars and a funky sound. The band is the reason that Mark Ronson or Amy Winehouse sound good, and also happens to be part of another stellar band that is known as the Budos Band (there's a few less Dap Kings than Budos Band members). Their sound could be likened to a modern Booker T and The MG's. A great number of talented, funk-minded individuals more concerned about making a great sound than looking good doing it... Not to say that they don't look good doing it too...
The album starts off with the title track, 100 Days, 100 Nights, and it gives me a nostalgic feeling like I should be in a smokey jazz club somewhere that I might see Etta James... After that, the album just blazes on.
Most of the tracks are tales of love and life like the classics of old. They're humble but self assured. Nobody's Baby, the second track is a bit of a liberated look at being in a relationship with just a great riff and sound.
My favorite tracks are Be Easy, Let Them Knock and Answer Me, but picking a favorite here is kind of a moot point because every track is stellar. In fact, all of Sharon's albums are really good, but I'd say that 100 Days, 100 Nights is my favorite of her works because it's the most consistent and there are really no tracks that miss the mark.
Free Music Review: Amazing soul done to perfection
Hit: 5 Stars
I first heard about Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on NPR and CNN. I was surprised to hear that they were Amy Winehouse's touring band; in retrospect, I should have ditched the Winehouse CD and bought 100 Days, 100 Nights since Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are the enduring soul stars on the scene. Sharon's story is a rags-to-riches tale of a former corrections officer who gave up her goal of a solo career because she was told she was "too black" or "too fat" to succeed.
This is soul the way it used to sound: gutteral, saucy, and sassy, at times a hair's breadth away from gospel, spiced with Muscle Shoals-style horns and tambourine beats that bring to mind the Funk Brothers. This sounds like it could be right out of the '70s heyday, and the band uses analog recording equipment for a more authentic sound.
The ten songs start out with a bang on 100 Days 100 Nights, starting with Sharon musing on love with a hoarse, urgent delivery that slows down to a slow burn as a Hammond organ underscores the drama and a gospelish choir sings the title lyrics behind Sharon. Nobody's Baby is a self-empowerment ode to women that flirts with funk and brims with "don't mess with me" attitude. Tell Me sounds straight out of the Funk Brothers catalog, with staccato tamborine, bongos, and crisp snare smoothed with vibe, and Sharon's sassy search for love. When the Other Foot Drops, Uncle is a soundalike for a long-lost Al Green gem. The rest of the tracks are each distinct and at once familiarly comforting, closing with the gospel blockbuster Answer Me.
Run, don't walk, to buy this if you're a fan of '70s soul. Amazing performances and authentically retro sound make this a must-have.