Soul revival singer loses battle with cancer

SHARON JONES, the stout powerhouse who shepherded a soul revival despite not finding stardom until middle age, has died at the age of 60.

Ms Jones’ representative, Judy Miller Silverman, said the singer died in hospital in Cooperstown, New York, on Friday after suffering pancreatic cancer.

She was surrounded by loved ones and members of her retro-soul band, the DapKings, Ms Silverman said.

The story of Ms Jones’ battle with cancer, first diagnosed in 2013, was told in Barbara Kopple’s documentary, Miss Sharon Jones! which was released earlier this year.

Alhough she triumphantly returned to the stage in 2015 after the cancer went into remission, Ms Jones announced its return late last year. Nevertheless, she mounted another comeback with the defiant single I’m Still Here, and hit the road again last summer with the Dap-Kings even while undergoing chemotherapy.

“You got to be brave,” a debilitated Ms Jones told the Associated Press in July, in between tour stops. “I want to use the time that I have. I don’t want to spend it all laid up, wishing I had done that gig.”

Miss Jones’ death was immediately noted on social media and throughout the music industry.

Producer Mark Ronson, who brought the Dap-Kings to play backing band to Amy Winehouse on her album Back To Black, said: “Sharon Jones had one of the most magnificent, gut-wrenching voices of anyone in recent time.”