Sharon Jones, the lead singer for the Dap-Kings, passed today at age 60 after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Jones was unique for starting her career at a time when the music industry put artists in a graveyard for their age, and then later being recognized by that same industry. She started singing professionally in the ’70’s with various R&B bands she created but her breakthrough did not happen until 2002. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings immediately hit the radar with their debut album, Dap Dippin’ With Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Jones’s James Brown-inspired stage presence brought the energy of the ’60’s into the 2000’s as a leader of a throwback soul movement. They recorded seven albums and received a Grammy nomination in the R&B Album Of The Year category for Give The People What They Want. Their music has been heard in several films and Jones had a cameo in The Great Debaters as a juke joint singer. In 2015, the documentary Miss Sharon Jones! debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
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