Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings: Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 2/15/08

Sharon Jones has officially arrived. With her sold-out show at the Beacon Theatre, the 51-year-old soul singer reached a significant point in a long, fractured career. By now, her back story is fairly well-known: early career as a gospel, soul and R&B backup singer, followed by a drought in the ’80s, when her sound was considered unfashionable and she made a living as a corrections officer at Rykers Island, resurgence in the late ’90s with Desco Records and then Daptone Records in 2002, acclaimed work with the troubled but wildly successful Amy Winehouse on her platinum-selling album, Back to Black.

This night, Jones and her stellar backing band, the Dap-Kings, tore through a scintillating two-hour set of funk-injected soul. Like James Brown and the other greats before her, Jones began off-stage, allowing the Dap-Kings to warm up the crowd with a quick series of tight, sweaty workouts. Introduced by guitarist Binky Griptite, Jones sauntered on to the stage and proceeded to blow everyone away with her magnetic presence, commanding voice and aching, precise control. With songs from across their repertoire, the band maintained a pleasing balance between potent, churning energy and restrained balladry.

Jones repeatedly invited audience members on stage to dance and sing along, complementing her extraordinary vocals with the charisma of a seasoned performer. The most remarkable aspect of her live show—aside from the tightness of the band—is her ability to raise her game above the already lofty standards of her studio recordings. With seemingly little left to give for an encore, she ripped off a high-powered version of Brown’s classic, "It’s a Man’s World," then sat down at the piano for the tender "Answer Me."

The comparisons are certainly apt—Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Bettye LaVette et al.—but Jones brings something extra to the table, and the entire Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings unit continue to breathe welcome new life into old-school funk and soul.

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