Today would have been Sharon Jones’ 70th Birthday.
The first time I met
@sharonjones was inside the vocal booth at the Daptone ’House of Soul’ recording studio and label offices in Bushwick, Brooklyn. That was nearly 17 years ago, it happened to be my 30th birthday, June 28th, 2009. After settling in and getting the lay of the land, I was straining to make some photos of Sharon singing through the layers of scratchy plexiglass that separate the vocal booth from the control room.
Gabe Roth sensed my itch and gave me the nod that I could go in if I wanted. Sharon—who I had known only from the stage and her sequined dresses and strappy heels— was dressed in black jeans and an Amoeba Music t-shirt. I was both in awe and disarmed at the same time. These photos are from about seven years later at what would be sessions for the final album, Soul of a Woman.
Sharon emanated joy and found almost singular purpose in being a performer and singer of soul music. We didn’t chat much about each other’s personal lives but I was around her a good deal and was sometimes the only person in the room at some of her most unguarded and honest professional moments.
She could be silly, sweet, funny, serious, focused, nervous, solemn, irascible and enraptured. She was a diva in the original sense of the word, focusing her being into the divine act of delivering a performance. The performance was what she needed, and knew the audience needed. It was really the same thing.
Happy Heavenly, Sharon
