"They say I'm different"
"Betty Davis is the funk," says poet and rapper Saul Williams. He among many other artists are awe-inspired by a woman, a creator far removed from the public knowledge and the art she once created. Or, at least we think so.
Betty Mabry Davis, the former wife of Jazz legend Miles, and the inspiration for his two great albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew was not just a muse. Although, her inspiration was immense having collaborated with her equally powerful husband, she also enhanced the music of Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton, Carlos Santana, and her “dear friend” Jimi Hendrix. Quite possibly, there would be no genre called Fusion had Betty not met these eccentric scions of music. If that is the case, how is it that her name calls to mind a glamorous movie star from old Hollywood and not an exotic and fierce earth mama in silver platform boots with a catalogue of music that is worthy of popular appreciation and endless critical reference.
Betty wrote and produced all of her three albums of which each could represent the foundations of funk music within its minimal ten plus songs. She called her rock and blues infused Funk “raw” when asked to describe it in one word. It seems so natural, truthful, and rare. “Raw” is a perfect word from a woman whom we only know of as being hyper-intuitive, sexual, and physically and mentally gifted. It seems the “mother” and creator of an entire genre was hidden. It is as if Mary’s name was taken out of the Bible. The musical bible is without its mother. She with her perfectly balanced mother and lover image encased in a body of an Egyptian goddess inhabited a space in the musical universe where only a few great minds have traveled. Perhaps, her “great mind” is exactly why cult fanatics can’t seem to find out where Ms. Davis is or what has happened in the years post the birth of Fusion. She is Sun Ra on estrogen. And, to most music appreciators she might as well be living on another planet and not in some non-descript Pennsylvania apartment with no biography past the seventies. A majority of people have never heard of her. The fans who have, know they have stumbled upon a gem and in doing so, have bitten into some scrumptious knowledge of sound, and the core of the symphonic apple.
Rumor has it that Betty has a back catalogue of unreleased material from her time in obscurity. “I am based between New York and San Francisco,” she casually pronounced in a retro radio interview. Even then, she wanted to remain personally ambiguous, even with her bold look and even bolder lyrics. Her contradictions were fascinating. She later said, in the interview, “I am a Leo…I love to be loved by a lot of people.” Is this a master plan by a sonic genius? Or, is this a woman lost, creating music in a beautiful mind no longer having the shell to match? Maybe the mystique does well in preserving her legend and impact as she didn’t fade out in the traditional sense, as we see some modern geniuses doing, as in the possible case of Tori Amos.
"God, I wish she would release that shit—that would be amazing," Williams says, when told of Ms. Davis’ unheard material. "There has never been a better time for a Betty Davis resurgence."
Maybe, late is better than never. Maybe, it is time for her to be simply “loved by a lot of people.”
MYSPACE TRIBUTE PAGE:
http://www.myspace.com/bettymabrydavis
AUDIO INTERVIEW:
http://www.divshare.com/download/797397-934
BETTY DAVIS IS BACK!
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-05-02/music/betty-davis-is-back-thanks-to-seattle-s-light-in-the-attic.php
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