New Documentary Film: Miss Sharon Jones – playing this week in NYC
“Her spirit is driven by music, and this was always her source of inspiration to continue onwards, despite the odds. Sharon makes you believe in anything.” – Barbara Kopple
As a lover of her music as well as her life story, it was a thrill to meet Sharon Jones in February of 2014. The occasion was her return to the stage after being forced by cancer to take a break from performing. We spoke a few hours prior to the curtain going up at the Beacon Theater. While shooting a little video of the concert, I noticed some other cameras. What I know now is that Barbara Kopple was in the final stages of filming her documentary that was released on Friday: Miss Sharon Jones.
I sat down again with the indomitable vocalist this week as well as the acclaimed filmmaker at the NY1 studios in Chelsea Market. Sadly the circumstances were not as favorable as our last meeting. While celebrating being cancer free 29 months ago, this time Jones was enduring more treatments but powering through to do press for the new movie. She’s as tough as they come as the flick makes plain. It’s got to be an inspiration to families dealing with cancer not to mention aspiring musicians, New Yorkers, and well anybody with a heart and ears. It also gives fans a chance to be a fly on the wall at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn and get to know better amazing figures like Gabriel Roth, Binky Griptite, and Dapettes Saun and Starr.
Miss Sharon Jones is at the IFC Center in the West Village this week and the soundtrack album will be out later this month. The latter includes a rousing new autobiographical ditty she wrote called I’m Still Here. It traces from her birth in North Augusta, South Carolina to the Civil Rights Era and through her unforgettable gig on Rikers Island as a prison guard and her current sparring with the big C.
Here’s a flashback to the conversation from 2014…
