American soul singer Sharon Jones, 1956-2016

Sharon Jones, the stout powerhouse who shepherded a soul revival despite not finding stardom until middle age, has died aged 60.

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

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

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

Though she triumphantly returned to the stage in 2015 after the cancer went into remission, 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 this summer with the Dap-Kings even while undergoing chemotherapy.

“You got to be brave,” a debilitated 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.”

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

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

The youngest of six children, Sharon Lafaye Jones was born on May 4 1956 in Augusta, Georgia. Her family lived in nearby North Augusta, South Carolina, across the Savannah River from the birthplace of James Brown.

Jones, who would grow into a dynamic, showstopping performer, grew up idolising the Godfather of Soul and would later be frequently tagged “the female James Brown”.

The Dap-Kings’ sixth album, Give The People What They Want, earned Jones her first Grammy nomination for best R&B album. Their last album, It’s A Holiday Soul Party,” was released last year.

Kopple witnessed the charismatic Jones light up hospital wards while undergoing chemo.

“When people are around or there’s an audience, that gives her fuel and she forgets her pain,” the film director said.

Jones lit up hospital wards.