Winehouse, shminehouse. When the Dap Kings, the ace house band of Brooklyn’s agreeably retro Daptone soul label, showed up at the Black Cat Friday Thursday night, they brought their real soul singer, Sharon Jones.

I know: It’s not a fair comparison. The Dap Kings were never really anything more than just guns for hire when they played with Amy Winehouse, whereas they’ve recorded three marvelous albums with Jones. I never got to see James Brown in his prime (though I did catch a glimpse of him passed out the back seat of a limo in a Waffle House parking lot when he played at my college — true!), but I’ve spent a lot of blissful hours with Live at the Apollo, Vol. II and Love Power Peace, and last night’s show was probably the closest I’ve come to experiencing a show as soulful as the ones documented on those records in person.

The Dap Kings came on first and treated us to 20 minutes of easy funk, Tommy ‘TNT’ Brenneck’s squiggly guitar lines and the horn section’s staccato bursts held in check by “Bosco” Mann’s rubbery bass groove. Guitarist/vocalist Binky Griptite welcomed us “to the Daptone Super Soul Revue!” and led the band through his own “Mellow Matic Mood” and “One Time” before introducing Jones with a Bobby Byrd-style recitation of the names of her “greatest hits,” such as they are.

Photo of Sharon Jones by Dulce Pinzon; courtesy of Motormouthmedia.