“100 Days, 100 Nights” - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
(Words/music: B. Mann, available on 100 Days, 100 Nights, Daptone 2007)
The title track to the third Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings’s record preaches the importance of patience. Appropriately, the Dap-Kings set a deliberate pace, letting their different horn lines intertwine beneath Jones’ spotlight-worthy vocals. As she’s singing about getting to know a man through his track record rather than by a first impression, Jones follows her band’s tempo and paces herself. That doesn’t mean that Jones holds back; instead, she sounds relaxed even as she holds a high note. She’s a gifted singer and a capable frontwoman, but she’s also willing to share her spotlight with her band. The way that Jones contorts certain notes with her gorgeous vibrato lets her slip into the spaces in between the horns and saxophones. Miraculously, Jones manages to take her moments in the spotlight (take the final vocal break right near the end of the song as an example) while also losing herself in her band’s arrangement.
Jones makes a compelling point about taking the time to learn about someone completely. “100 Days, 100 Night” is (appropriately) the hundredth song in my project. I’ve learned a few things so far. First – writing every day is difficult, but having a “deadline” (of midnight, which I’ve come dangerously close to on a few occasions) can be inspiring. I’ve also learned that it’s not always easy to say why I like a song – some of the most difficult posts have been for songs that I’ve loved for a long time and thus thought 400 words would flow out effortlessly. Instead, some of the most interesting posts (and I might highlight a few of them at some point over the weekend) seemingly came out of nowhere – whether they were crazy ideas I let myself follow for a few hundred words or something new in a song I hadn’t noticed before, I feel like I’ve learned something about these first hundred songs as well as the writing process. If nothing else, I’ve settled into the process and look forward to coming home and writing about a song (even if it takes longer than I should spend on it and even if it makes my head hurt when I can’t pick one). There are a lot more songs left to look at this year!
As for what I’ve learned about my taste in music, I have to defer to Sharon Jones on this one – it takes 100 days to know a man’s heart, but “a little more before he knows his own.”
More on Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm
Notes