Sharon Jones

My interview with the wonderfully awesome Sharon Jones is in this week's WE.

Sharon Jones: “You can’t tell me how to sing soulful. You write the music and put the lyrics down and let me bring it to life.”

Credit: supplied

Sharon Jones is always “ready for soul”

Posted By: Andrea Warner

06/09/2010 12:00 AM

It’s almost impossible to imagine 54-year-old Sharon Jones, lead singer of the Dap-Kings, at the mercy of anything, let alone a flat tire. She’s a tornado of a presence on stage, infusing every lyric of the soul-funk revivalist group’s songs with a lifetime’s worth of soul. WE’s first scheduled interview with Jones is bumped due to freeway blow-out that leaves the group stranded between gigs. But Jones and the band are used to encountering a few bumps on the road — their fourth album, a brilliant collection that recalls Motown at its best, is titled I Learned the Hard Way, after all.

Young people who love your music are discovering your mentors, like Mavis Staples. How does that feel?
Jones: It’s so great. And to see the young kids — people keep sayin’, “Why are there so many young people?” And I’m like, “Do you understand that it’s college students who got us where we are?” They were into this internet and the web and MySpace and all that stuff. I never would have thought that young people like what’s-his-name, Mark Ronson, and Amy Winehouse — I didn’t know about them, but they knew about us. They tried to imitate us, but they couldn’t do it, so they had to come to us. [The Dap-Kings served as back-up band on much of Winehouse’s Ronson-produced Back to Black album.] And that won them a Grammy. That says to me, yes, my day will come. That’s what I come back to again with I Learned the Hard Way: Nothing comes easy to me. (Laughs)

What role did music play in your life growing up? Did you always want to be a singer?
I was seven or eight years old, down south, and it was Christmas, and they dressed me up like an angel even though I was a little devil — my sister was like, “We should put some horns on her head!” I did “Silent Night,” and people went, “Ooh, that little girl can sing!” From that point on, I was always imitatin’ everyone. Then Aretha hit the scene — and I mean, James Brown had a big influence on my life, but Aretha! I wanted to play the organ and do the gospel songs, and that’s how I learned to play the piano, too: just imitatin’ everyone. And then meeting [the Dap-Kings] in the ’90s... I was ready. I was ready for soul. When I went in with them, they would just write the music and the lyrics and give it to me to sing — “Here, Sharon” — and I’m gone. It’s not like they gonna give me a melody and tell me how to sing the song soulful; you can’t tell me how to sing soulful. You write the music and put the lyrics down and let me bring it to life.

What about getting into the character of a song?
I’m gonna tell just you about one time. Most people don’t know this. When [debut Dap-Kings album] Dap Dippin’ came out, and I had to sing that song “Make it Good to Me” — I can’t even think about it, ’cause I wasn’t in the mood and I hate singin’ that song. I was breakin’ up with a guy, and I just couldn’t sing a love song. (Laughs) That’s when the acting part comes in.

You’ve had the opportunity to do a bit of acting in the past [a bit-part in The Great Debaters featuring Denzel Washington]. Do you want to keep pursuing that?
Yeah, definitely, with the right part. The way you get into the songs, comin’ up with character — I could do that. Gotta be a good character. Nothin’ crazy.

Like, maybe you don’t want to kill a man.
Nah, I probably would. Imagine he’s my ex, and be like, “Yeah, I’d kill that fucker!” (Laughs)

Ensemble Pamplemousse

My article on Ensemble Pamplemousse appears in the Charleston City Paper.

Ensemble Pamplemousse's fresh take on the sound of music

Concepts and Crackles

by Andrea Warner

• Ensemble Pamplemousse bring everything to the Redux Contemporary Art Center

Ensemble Pamplemousse

Crescendoed hums, exotic flourishes, and more blips and beeps than a sci-fi convention — Brooklyn-based indie experimental collective Ensemble Pamplemousse isn't for everyone. But, for those seeking a sonic experience that's truly other-worldly, the sextet delivers.

The New Music Collective kicks off its Fall season as it presents the group at Redux on Saturday evening. The ensemble will cnduct a presentation beforehand explaining their music process and the implementation of the "super instruments."

The band name means "grapefruit" in French. "We searched for something that would describe what we wanted the group to embody — a thoroughly exciting, deliciously satisfying experience," says Flautist Natacha Diels. "There are several things in life which bring about a total-body thrill of this sort, and one happens to be eating a grapefruit. One starts by peeling away the thick outer layer to reveal the translucent inner layer. All that remains is the rich, beautiful ruby red heart of the fruit, achieved through just enough work to be truly rewarding."

It's an apt description when wading through the group's lengthy list of compositions. One might not quite understand what's going on when first listening to something like "ttt", which sounds at turns like a kettle's strange whistle, and a throatier sound, like a deep droning (rather than a high-pitched) squeal. But stick around and the transformative sounds start to create scenes, landscapes, settings for places only you can imagine.

But Pamplemousse wasn't always so experimental. They originally began as a more "traditional" new music ensemble.

"We started performing works we'd heard and liked," Diels says. "[But it] was somewhat unsatisfying, due largely to the lack of interaction we had with the composers."

Pamplemousse's other members include violinist Kiku Enomoto, writer Rama Gottfried, percussionist Andrew Greenwald, David Broome on keyboards, and cellist Jessie Marino. Diels credits everyone's strong-mindedness and creative inclinations with eventually moving Pamplemousse to crafting in-house compositions.

"Each member of the group is highly unique in their compositional material, yet focused on similar creative palettes, so we achieve concerts which are very diverse yet cohesive," Diels says. "We also have a composer-member, Rama Gottfried, who has strongly influenced the direction Pamplemousse's sound. I feel really fortunate to have this particular group of musicians to work with, not only because they're exceptional musicians, but because they are so adamant about forming the music into a product that is their own, which really is the essence of Pamplemousse."

Pamplemousse's most recent collaboration, the collectively-written Blocks, lends itself to the soundtrack of a wordless cartoon: fingers pluck while bows scrape cello and violin strings; and the marches up and down the piano keys call to mind classic Tom and Jerry escapades. At different moments it sounds like paper's being crumpled in fists, or someone's bouncing up and down on rusty bed springs, and then the drums seem to growl like an animal lurking in the forest. Diels, despite Blocks' success, is already anticipating new influences for the next compositions, though she's not sure how the inspirations will manifest themselves musically.

"The group's direction changes as the members' interests change, and therefore it's difficult to predict what will come next," Diels says. We can guess and wager it'll be unlike anything we've ever heard before.