Musician Betty Davis, pioneer of funk and inspiration for generations of artists despite a short career, died Wednesday at the age of 77. “It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of Betty Davis, multi-talented music influencer and rock pioneer, singer, songwriter and fashion figure,” a longtime friend of Betty’s announced. Davis, Constance Portis, on the artist’s website.
The second wife of jazz legend Miles Davis was a mainstay of the New York music scene of the 1960s, and recorded almost all of his music between 1964 and 1975, with titles like Get Ready for Betty. She had achieved great success for her lyricism with sexual references, setting the tone, later, for legends like Prince and Madonna.
She inspired generations
If their marriage only lasted a year, it is to Betty Davis that we attribute the merit of having introduced the trumpeter to the rock of the time, through Jimi Hendrix, and paving the way for his fusion phase, which gave rise to Bitches Brew in 1970. Betty Davis also wrote the song Uptown (to Harlem) in 1967 for the Chambers Brothers, rediscovered in the documentary summer of soul about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a film by musician Questlove nominated for the 2022 Oscars.
Rappers like Ice Cube and Talib Kweli sampled the work of Betty Davis, whose music failed to achieve commercial success but inspired artists for decades. For artist Janelle Monae, she is one of the “godmothers” behind “redefining the way black women in music can be perceived”. “We’re just grains of sand in her Bettyness,” singer Erykah Badu added of Betty Davis.