Betty Davis
Encyclopedia
Betty Davis is an American
funk
, rock
and soul
singer. She was also Miles Davis
's second wife.
, Ebony
and Glamour
. In her time in New York, Mabry met several musicians including Jimi Hendrix
and Sly Stone
.
Born Betty Mabry in 1945, Betty Davis grew up in Pittsburgh and Durham, North Carolina, where she cultivated her love for music. She spent hours listening to her grandmother’s vast blues collection: B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, and Elmore James — among many others — and began writing songs at age 12. Her first song was a sweet ditty called “I’m Going to Bake That Cake of Love,” perhaps an indication of what was to come with its sensual connotations.
At 16, she left Pittsburgh for New York City, enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology while living with her aunt. It was there that she soaked up the Greenwich Village culture of the early ’60s, hanging around folkies and absorbing their blues-like purity. In recollections from those close to her, Davis was said to be quick to make friends; and just as quickly, Davis associated herself with frequenters of the Cellar, a hip uptown club where young and stylish people congregated. It was a multiracial, artsy crowd of models, design students, actors, and singers, and Davis soaked up the youthful creativity like air.
To support herself, she took up working as a model while being one of the stars of the Cellar, where she played records and chatted people up. Michael Lang, her future record-label boss, remembers Davis as “very unique and self-possessed.”
Yet the seeds of Davis’ musical career were planted through her friendship with soul singer Lou Courtney, who produced her first single, “The Cellar,” and which had simple, catchy lyrics like, “Where you going fellas, so fly? / I’m going to the Cellar, my oh my / What you going to do there / We’re going to boogaloo there.”
The single was a local jam for the Cellar. Yet Davis’ first professional gig wasn’t until she wrote “Uptown (to Harlem)” for the Chambers Brothers. Their 1967 album was a major success, but Davis was already moving on with her modeling career. As to be expected, she was successful as a model, with striking good looks and a bohemian style, but she felt bored by the work. According to Oliver Wang’s They Say I’m Different liner notes, Davis says, “I didn’t like modeling because you didn’t need brains to do it. It’s only going to last as long as you look good.”
included a song named after her and her photo on the front cover. In his autobiography, Miles credited Mabry with helping to plant the seeds of his future musical explorations by introducing the trumpeter to psychedelic rock
guitarist Jimi Hendrix
and funk
innovator Sly Stone
.
It is believed that Hendrix and Betty Davis had an affair that hastened the end of her marriage to Miles Davis, but Betty denies this. What's more, Hendrix and Miles stayed close after the divorce, planning to record until Hendrix's death. The influence of Hendrix and especially Sly Stone on Miles Davis was obvious on the album Bitches Brew
, which ushered in the era of jazz fusion
. The origin of the album's title is unknown, but some believe Miles was subtly paying tribute to the woman whose intersecting relationships helped spur the album's genesis. In fact, it is said that he originally wanted to call the album Witches' Brew — it was Betty who convinced him to change it.
Her first record, Betty Davis
, was released in 1973. It had impressive lyrics and funky grooves on songs such as "Anti Love Song," as well as an impressive list of musicians:
Davis released two more studio albums, They Say I'm Different (1974) and her major label debut on Island Records Nasty Gal (1975). None of the three albums was a commercial success. Davis remained a cult figure as a singer, due in part to her open sexual attitude, which was controversial for the time. Some of her shows were boycotted and her songs were not played on the radio due to pressure by religious groups. However, with the passage of time her records have become highly regarded by collectors of soul and funk music. Both Betty Davis and They Say I'm Different were re-released by Seattle's Light in the Attic Records
on May 1, 2007. In September 2009 Light in the Attic Records
reissued Nasty Gal and her unreleased 4th studio album recorded in 1976, re-titled as Is It Love or Desire? (the original title was Crashin' From Passion). Both reissues contained extensive liner notes and shed some light on the mystery of why her 4th album, considered possibly to be her best work by many members of her band (Herbie Hancock
, Chuck Rainey
, Alphonse Mouzon
), was shelved by the record label and remained unreleased for 33 years. After a final recording session in 1979, Davis eventually stopped making music and returned to Pennsylvania.
Material from the 1979 recording session was eventually used for two bootleg albums, Hangin' Out In Hollywood (1995) and Crashin' From Passion (1996). A greatest hits album, Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis, was released in 2000.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
singer. She was also Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
's second wife.
Background
She worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads in SeventeenSeventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
, Ebony
Ebony (magazine)
Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African-American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since the autumn of 1945...
and Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
. In her time in New York, Mabry met several musicians including Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
.
Born Betty Mabry in 1945, Betty Davis grew up in Pittsburgh and Durham, North Carolina, where she cultivated her love for music. She spent hours listening to her grandmother’s vast blues collection: B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, and Elmore James — among many others — and began writing songs at age 12. Her first song was a sweet ditty called “I’m Going to Bake That Cake of Love,” perhaps an indication of what was to come with its sensual connotations.
At 16, she left Pittsburgh for New York City, enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology while living with her aunt. It was there that she soaked up the Greenwich Village culture of the early ’60s, hanging around folkies and absorbing their blues-like purity. In recollections from those close to her, Davis was said to be quick to make friends; and just as quickly, Davis associated herself with frequenters of the Cellar, a hip uptown club where young and stylish people congregated. It was a multiracial, artsy crowd of models, design students, actors, and singers, and Davis soaked up the youthful creativity like air.
To support herself, she took up working as a model while being one of the stars of the Cellar, where she played records and chatted people up. Michael Lang, her future record-label boss, remembers Davis as “very unique and self-possessed.”
Yet the seeds of Davis’ musical career were planted through her friendship with soul singer Lou Courtney, who produced her first single, “The Cellar,” and which had simple, catchy lyrics like, “Where you going fellas, so fly? / I’m going to the Cellar, my oh my / What you going to do there / We’re going to boogaloo there.”
The single was a local jam for the Cellar. Yet Davis’ first professional gig wasn’t until she wrote “Uptown (to Harlem)” for the Chambers Brothers. Their 1967 album was a major success, but Davis was already moving on with her modeling career. As to be expected, she was successful as a model, with striking good looks and a bohemian style, but she felt bored by the work. According to Oliver Wang’s They Say I’m Different liner notes, Davis says, “I didn’t like modeling because you didn’t need brains to do it. It’s only going to last as long as you look good.”
Marriage to Miles Davis
Mabry met Miles Davis in 1967 and married him in September 1968. In just one year of marriage she influenced him greatly. The Miles Davis album Filles de KilimanjaroFilles de Kilimanjaro
is a studio album by American jazz recording artist Miles Davis. It was recorded in June and September 1968...
included a song named after her and her photo on the front cover. In his autobiography, Miles credited Mabry with helping to plant the seeds of his future musical explorations by introducing the trumpeter to psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
guitarist Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
innovator Sly Stone
Sly Stone
Sly Stone is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly & the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of...
.
It is believed that Hendrix and Betty Davis had an affair that hastened the end of her marriage to Miles Davis, but Betty denies this. What's more, Hendrix and Miles stayed close after the divorce, planning to record until Hendrix's death. The influence of Hendrix and especially Sly Stone on Miles Davis was obvious on the album Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
, which ushered in the era of jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. The origin of the album's title is unknown, but some believe Miles was subtly paying tribute to the woman whose intersecting relationships helped spur the album's genesis. In fact, it is said that he originally wanted to call the album Witches' Brew — it was Betty who convinced him to change it.
Music career
After the breakup of her marriage with Davis, Betty moved to London to pursue her modeling career. She wrote music while in the UK and returned to the US with the intention of recording songs with Santana. Instead, she organized a group of talented West Coast funk musicians to make her own recordings.Her first record, Betty Davis
Betty Davis (album)
Betty Davis is the self-titled debut album by Betty Davis, released through Just Sunshine Records in 1973. The album was produced by Greg Errico and features contributions from a number of noted musicians such as Neal Schon, Sylvester, Larry Graham and The Pointer Sisters...
, was released in 1973. It had impressive lyrics and funky grooves on songs such as "Anti Love Song," as well as an impressive list of musicians:
- Neal SchonNeal SchonNeal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
(SantanaSantana (band)Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
/JourneyJourney (band)Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
) Doug Rodrigues (Buzzy Linhart, Lenny White) - guitar - Gregg Errico (Sly & The Family StoneSly & the Family StoneSly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
) - drums - Larry GrahamLarry GrahamLarry Graham, Jr. is an African American bass guitar player, both with the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station...
(Sly & The Family Stone and eponym of Graham Central StationGraham Central StationGraham Central Station is a funk band named after founder Larry Graham . The name is a pun on New York City's Grand Central Terminal, often incorrectly called Grand Central Station....
) - bass - Patryce Banks (Graham Central Station) - percussion
- Willie Sparks (Graham Central Station) - drums
- Hershall Kennedy (Graham Central Station) - horns
- Greg Adams (Tower of PowerTower of PowerTower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
) - horns - Mic GilletteMic GilletteMic Gillette is an American brass player born in 1951 and raised in northern California's East Bay area. He is famous for being a member of Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Sons of Champlin....
(Tower of Power) - horns - Skip Mesquite (Tower of Power) - saxophone
- Merl SaundersMerl SaundersMerl Saunders, was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.-Biography:...
- electric piano - Pete SearsPete SearsPeter 'Pete' Sears is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than four decades he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk, country music, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues...
- acoustic piano - The Pointer Sisters - background vocals
Davis released two more studio albums, They Say I'm Different (1974) and her major label debut on Island Records Nasty Gal (1975). None of the three albums was a commercial success. Davis remained a cult figure as a singer, due in part to her open sexual attitude, which was controversial for the time. Some of her shows were boycotted and her songs were not played on the radio due to pressure by religious groups. However, with the passage of time her records have become highly regarded by collectors of soul and funk music. Both Betty Davis and They Say I'm Different were re-released by Seattle's Light in the Attic Records
Light In The Attic Records
Light In The Attic Records is an independent record label established in 2002 in Seattle, Washington by Matt Sullivan, known for its roster of reissue projects, and for its distribution catalog. . As reissue label, Light In The Attic has re-released works by artists such as Betty Davis, Serge...
on May 1, 2007. In September 2009 Light in the Attic Records
Light In The Attic Records
Light In The Attic Records is an independent record label established in 2002 in Seattle, Washington by Matt Sullivan, known for its roster of reissue projects, and for its distribution catalog. . As reissue label, Light In The Attic has re-released works by artists such as Betty Davis, Serge...
reissued Nasty Gal and her unreleased 4th studio album recorded in 1976, re-titled as Is It Love or Desire? (the original title was Crashin' From Passion). Both reissues contained extensive liner notes and shed some light on the mystery of why her 4th album, considered possibly to be her best work by many members of her band (Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Chuck Rainey
Chuck Rainey
Chuck Rainey, is an American bass guitar session musician, known for playing with many well-known American musicians and acts, including Donald Byrd, Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, and Aretha Franklin.-Biography:Rainey's youthful pursuits included violin, piano and trumpet...
, Alphonse Mouzon
Alphonse Mouzon
Alphonse Mouzon is a well-known jazz-fusion drummer and percussionist, and the Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records. He also composes, arranges and produces, as well as acts...
), was shelved by the record label and remained unreleased for 33 years. After a final recording session in 1979, Davis eventually stopped making music and returned to Pennsylvania.
Material from the 1979 recording session was eventually used for two bootleg albums, Hangin' Out In Hollywood (1995) and Crashin' From Passion (1996). A greatest hits album, Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis, was released in 2000.
Original Studio Albums
| Year | Album | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 196? | The Cellar/??? | Independent Release | 1st Studio Single; Produced by Lou Courtney |
| 1964 | Get Ready For Betty / I'm Gonna Get My Baby Back | DCP | 2nd Studio Single |
| 1968 | It's My Life / Live, Love, Learn | Columbia | 3rd Studio Single |
| 1973 | Betty Davis Betty Davis (album) Betty Davis is the self-titled debut album by Betty Davis, released through Just Sunshine Records in 1973. The album was produced by Greg Errico and features contributions from a number of noted musicians such as Neal Schon, Sylvester, Larry Graham and The Pointer Sisters... |
Just Sunshine Light in the Attic (2009 re-release) |
1st studio album; produced by Greg Errico Greg Errico Greg Errico, sometimes missspelled as Gregg Errico, is an Italian American musician/record producer, best known for being the drummer for the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band, Sly & the Family Stone... |
| 1974 | They Say I'm Different | Just Sunshine Light in the Attic (2009 re-release) |
2nd studio album; produced by Betty Davis |
| 1975 | Nasty Gal | Island Light in the Attic (2009 re-release) |
3rd studio album; produced by Betty Davis |
| 2009 | Is It Love or Desire? | Light in the Attic | 4th album; recorded in 1976 and released in 2009 |
Unofficial Releases
- Hangin' Out In Hollywood (1995) (Charly) / Crashin' From Passion (Razor & Tie) (1996)
- Compilation of material recorded in 1979 and released in 1995 and 1996 without the artist's consent
- Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis (2000) (UFoxy)
- Compilation
- This Is It! Anthology (2005) (Vampisoul)
- Compilation
External links
- The Sound of Young America: Betty Davis Interview – June 21, 2007: Betty Davis gives her first radio interview in 30 years.
- Neil Spencer, "Miles Davis: The muse who changed him, and the heady Brew that rewrote jazz", The Guardian, 5 September 2010 - includes 2010 interview with Betty Davis.
- Betty Davis: Betty Davis – Album review