MusicUK

One month after Sharon Jones died of pancreatic cancer in 2016, her closest friends and family gathered at the Universal Church of God in Queens, New York, to celebrate and mourn the exuberant, Grammy-nominated soul and funk vocalist. As a teenager, Jones had written a song titled "Call on God" that she would often sing with other choir members. Later in life, she'd use it to warm up in the studio and recorded the track in 2007 with backing band the Dap-Kings for their third album 100 Days, 100 Nights. But the group already had another gospel song on the album and the track was permanently shelved.




Now, many of these same members who sang with Jones through the decades were in church, belting Jones' moving spiritual. "We were all floored," says Neal Sugarman, Dap-Kings saxophonist and co-founder of Jones' label Daptone Records. With emotions still high following the service, the singers entered Daptone's Brooklyn studio to "perform" with Jones one last time on a heart-wrenching version of the song that appears on Jones' recently released final album Soul of a Woman.



"The first time people hear [Soul of a Woman] – especially the hardcore Sharon fans – people are going to get real down and then it's going to take them back up," says Sugarman. "From my perspective, it's one more nail in the annals of classic soul records because Sharon has proven through her catalog and live shows that she is one of the greats. Hopefully these are classic records, which means they'll live on forever."

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