Betty Davis, the pioneering singer and musician of the USA who was named “Godmother of Funk”, has died at the age of 77.
Davis paved the way with her raw funk lyrics as well as sexually explicit lyrics that would continue to influence stars such as Prince and Madonna.
The news of her death was confirmed on her website by her friend Constance Portis.
#BettyDavis 07/26/1945 – 02/09/2022
This lady was hip before hip was hip. Her musical and fashion expression had no boundaries, and she influenced the likes of Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. ‘Nuff said. Rest in paradise, Queen. pic.twitter.com/cbj0mQFiRM– Lenny Kravitz (@LennyKravitz) February 9, 2022
Tributes to Davis about how much they were influenced by American rockers Lenny Kravitz and Prince.
Born and raised as Betty Malry in North Carolina, she became a pillar of the 1960s New York music scene with tracks such as Get Ready for Betty.
The 1967 Uptown (to Harlem) song he wrote for the Chambers Brothers recently reappeared in Questlove’s recent Oscar-nominated documentary Summer of Soul.
She was the second wife of jazz star Miles Davis for just one year. In his autobiography, Miles said Betty was “very young and wild” and accused her of having an affair with Jimi Hendrix, which hastened the end of their marriage.
Betty denied the allegations, saying, “I was so angry with Miles when he wrote this. It was disrespectful to Jimi and me. Miles and I broke up because of his violent temper.”
After accusing her of adultery, she filed for divorce in 1969.
The next phase of fusion jazz-rock brought the classic album, Bitches Brew.
“Every day I married him was a day that earned me the name Davis,” he said in a documentary about the turbulent time they were together.
“I wrote about love, really, and all levels of love,” he told the New York Times in 2018, in a rare interview, following the release of the documentary Betty – They Say I’m Different.
“When I wrote about it, nobody wrote about it. But now everyone writes about it. It’s like a cliché.”
Davis shone for a short time from 1964 to 1975 and while her music was not a commercial success, it has proven to be an incredible influence for generations to come.
Contemporary singer Janelle Monae previously described Davis as “one of the godfathers of redefining how black women can be seen in music”
With information from wikipedia
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