Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: 7 August 2010 – New York

The last night of Celebrate Brooklyn’s 2010 season, turned out to be the hottest ticket in town, as Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings lit up the stage with an evening of breathless old school style funk and soul featuring SJDK classics like “When I Come Home”, “Mama Don’t Like My Man”, “Window Shopping” and “This Land Is Your Land”. Accompanying the SJDK powerhouse on stage was the Bushwick Philharmonic.

Just a few songs into SJDK’s performance, Deep Funk legend, Lee Fields came a knocking and joined Sharon on stage to sing “Stranded In Your Love”. Then Lee sang solo to the “Ladies”, and performed another duet with Ms. Jones, “What Can I Do”, live for the first time.

Ms. Jones claimed that she was running on 45 minutes of sleep, but her boundless energy could power a mid-sized town. Nearly half-way into the show, Sharon was handed a note. “Twenty Thousand” she proclaimed. As in the largest attendance in Celebrate Brooklyn’s history.

Ms. Jones, who resides in Brooklyn and has been on the road since April 6th of this year, proclaimed that she was “so glad to be home.” Well, Ms. Jones, I think Brooklyn feels the same way.

Kicking off the festivities were two members of the illustrious Daptone roster. First up was The Honeydripper playing a DJ set full of Soul, Funk and Latin beats. Followed by the Instrumental Afro Soul outfit from Staten Island, The Budos Band, who are celebrating the release of their 3rd album, The Budos Band III and were joined on stage by a couple members of the Dap-Kings.