Another one of the greats has left us.
Sharon Jones, the lead singer of the retro-soul group the Dap-Kings, died on Friday iafter a battle with pancreatic cancer, her representative confirmed. She was 60 years old.
Members of the band were at her bedside when she died in a New York Hospital, her representative, Judy Miller Silverman, said. Jones had been battling the cancer since 2013, but remained dedicated to her craft and continued performing during remission periods.
“You got to be brave,” she told the Associated Press when asked why she still performs. “I want to use the time that I have. I don’t want to spend it all laid up, wishing I had done that gig.”
Jones was known for her powerhouse voice and her outstanding performances alongside the Dap-Kings. After years of actively pursuing success in the music industry, she got her breakthrough in 2002. Her debut, “Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings,” as well as her Grammy-nominated 2014 album, “Give the People What They Want” put her on the map.
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“Sharon Jones had one of the most magnificent, gut-wrenching voices of anyone in recent time,” British producer Mark Ronson said. He used the Dap-Kings as the backing band for Amy Winehouse, on her breakthrough album, Back in Black, in 2006.
Though sick, she returned to the stage in 2015 — a comeback chronicled in the 2016 documentary “Miss Sharon Jones!”
May she rest in peace.