Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings pictured in 2015
Background information
Origin	Brooklyn, New York, United States
Genres	Funk, soul, R&B
Years active	1996–2016
Labels	Daptone
Associated acts	Mark Ronson & The Business INTL, Antibalas, The Budos Band, Amy Winehouse, Kesha
Website	SharonJonesAndTheDapKings.com
Members	Binky Griptite David Guy Bosco Mann Neal Sugarman Joe Crispiano Fernando Velez Homer Steinweiss Cochemea Gastelum Saundra Williams Starr Duncan-Lowe
Past members	Sharon Jones (deceased) Leon Michels Earl Maxton Anda Szilagyi Todd M. Simon Thomas Brenneck Ian Hendrickson-Smith

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a revivalist movement recreating mid-1960s to mid-1970 style funk and soul music. In December 2014, the band was nominated for a Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album of the Year for Give the People What They Want.

In the mid-1990s Philip Lehman and Gabriel Roth, AKA Bosco Mann, founded a band called the Soul Providers, and began recording an album of James Brown-inspired instrumentals and vocal collaborations with Deep Funk recording artist Lee Fields. After hearing Sharon Jones, a former corrections officer turn singer, record backing vocals for a Fields track, Lehman and Roth recorded a solo track of Jones singing "Switchblade", a song which had been intended for a man's voice. This track along with another Jones solo, "The Landlord", were included on the Soul Providers debut album Soul Tequila, released in about 1996 on the now-defunct French label Pure Records.

Lehman and Roth then started a new label in Brooklyn, New York called Desco Records, with a studio and distribution office in the basement of the Desco vacuum cleaner store on West 41st Street. They reissued Soul Tequila as a vinyl-only LP and renamed Gimme The Paw, and included only one of the Jones collaborations, "Switchblade".

Desco showcased its artists with revue-style shows and released their music on vinyl 45-rpm records. Jones, backed by the Soul Providers who had become the Desco house band, released three 45s for the label. Recording dates were deliberately omitted from the labels and the records were often marketed as being released in the 1970s. Two other Soul Providers albums were released, an instrumental soundtrack to a Sam Lung kung-fu film, The Revenge of Mr Mopoji, credited to Mike Jackson and the Soul Providers, and a solo album by Lee Fields, Let's Get a Groove On, for which the Soul Providers provided the backing.

In 2000 Lehman and Roth decided to part ways, and the Soul Providers disbanded. Lehman set up Soul Fire Records; Roth started Daptone Records with Sugarman 3 saxophonist Neal Sugarman. A new group, the Dap-Kings, was formed, consisting of label owners Roth, AKA Bosco Mann, on bass and Neal Sugarman on saxophone, plus original Soul Providers: guitarist Binky Griptite, organist Earl Maxton, percussionist Fernando Velez and trumpeter Anda Szilagyi. Joining them were original members of the Mighty Imperials whose album, Thunder Chicken, was the last release on the Desco label: tenor saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss.