1996–2000: The early years with Desco Records In the mid-1990s, artist
Phillip Lehman and musician Gabriel Roth (also known as
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
corrections officer turned 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 New York called
Desco Records, first on the lower East Side above an umbrella store and later with a studio and distribution office in the basement of an apartment building located at 440 West 41st Street in Manhattan. They reissued
Soul Tequila as a vinyl-only LP and renamed
Gimme the Paw, and included only one of the Jones collaborations, "Switchblade". northwest of
Düsseldorf, Germany, May 2007 Desco showcased its artists- The Soul Providers and
Sugarman Three with shows which were revues 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. Desco recorded, "Funky Sitar Man" by Ravi Harris and the Prophets, released on BBE Record.
2000–2003: The birth of the Dap-Kings and Daptone Records In 2000, Lehman and Roth parted ways, and the Soul Providers disbanded. Lehman set up Soul Fire Records; Roth started
Daptone Records with
Sugarman 3 saxophonist Neal Sugarman. The next studio location from 2000-2002 was at 340 Grand Street in Williamsburg, in the basement of Amayo's Afrospot and served as the headquarters for Daptone recording projects and the band
Antibalas. A new group, the Dap-Kings, was formed, consisting of label owners Roth on bass and Neal Sugarman on saxophone, plus original Soul Providers: guitarist
Binky Griptite, organist
Earl Maxton, saxophonist
Martin Perna percussionist Fernando Velez, and trumpeter Anda Szilagyi. Joining them were two young 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, who both had also been touring members of The Soul Providers previously. The band secured a four week, 20 show engagement at La Boite, a club in
Barcelona, Spain, and recorded an LP, ''
Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, in 2001. A few hundred copies were pressed, so that sales during the residency would provide financial support for what would have otherwise been a financially draining trip. Promotional copies were sent to funk DJs and reviewers, and the album was officially released as the first LP and CD on Daptone Records in 2002, and attracted an enthusiastic review from quarterly hip-hop and funk magazine Big Daddy''. After the album came out, three 45s not on the album were released: "What If We all Stopped Paying Taxes", released in 2002 just ahead of the U.S. election, was a militant anti-war statement denouncing the
Iraq War. "Genuine (parts 1 & 2)" (2004) was a hard funk record. Their cover of "
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", released in 2005, was recorded for a
KFC commercial in 2002 but was never used.
2003–2006: Naturally and personnel changes About this time Maxton and Szilagyi left the band to become members of
Antibalas, a New York-based
afrobeat band. Trumpeter
Dave Guy and guitarist
Thomas Brenneck joined in their stead. In 2003, the Daptone Recording Studio, with a sixteen-track analog tape machine, was open for business. The band intended to record two albums back-to-back, but during the final sessions of the first of these albums, Roth suffered serious eye injuries in a car crash, and only one LP and CD,
Naturally, was released in 2005. This album included a mix of both soul and funk influences; the production and recording values were crisper than the slightly duller "scratchy 45" sound of the first album. The band embarked on an international promotional tour.
Leon Michels left the band soon after the release of
Naturally to help start a new label,
Truth & Soul Records, and released a solo LP that was originally intended for Daptone,
Sounding Out the City, credited to
El Michels Affair. When Lehman closed the Soul Fire label and moved to the Bahamas, the back catalog of Soul Fire was handled by Truth & Soul Records, who, along with Soul Fire, used many of the same artists in their recordings, including Lee Fields, Steinweiss, Brenneck and Michels himself. The Dap-Kings took on
Ian Hendrickson-Smith, a local saxophone player who had released several
jazz albums under his own name.
2006–2015: Subsequent albums In late 2006, the band recorded a third studio album,
100 Days, 100 Nights. A non-album funk-style single, "I'm Not Gonna Cry", was released in April 2007, and the album was released in October along with two
B-sides/bonus tracks: "Settlin' In" and "The Collection Song". Further albums included
I Learned the Hard Way (2010),
Give the People What They Want (2014), and the holiday release ''It's a Holiday Soul Party''. Also in 2014, Jones and her band performed at
Supercrawl in
Hamilton, Ontario.
2016–2020: Jones' death and final releases The recording process
Soul of a Woman began in 2015, during which Jones was fighting
pancreatic cancer; she had been first diagnosed in 2013. A film about Jones' battle with cancer,
Miss Sharon Jones!, was released in 2016 with a soundtrack compilation. Jones died on November 18, 2016, at the age of 60. No specific announcement has been made regarding the band's future; however, the Dap-Kings performed at the
59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017 The Dap-Kings completed the music for the album during this time and released
Soul of a Woman on the first anniversary of Jones' death in 2017. Two years later, in September 2020, the group announced
Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Rendition Was In, an album compiling cover songs recorded over the years. The record was released on October 23, 2020. == Members ==