Betty Davis biography: early years, music, life with Miles Davis

Betty Davis - American singer with a style funk and soulknown for her memorable live performances. A fiercely colourful funk diva, Davis combined a hard-edged emotional realism Tina Turnera futuristic sense of fashion David Bowie and fashion sense Miles Daviswho had been her husband for a year... It's easy to imagine the public laughter when a 23-year-old model married a famous musician twice her age, but Davis wasn't a gold digger: she was attracted to the Miles to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. (providing the spark that led to his musical reinterpretation in songs In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew) and then proved her own talent by releasing three stunning solo records midway through 70-х Years...

Early years

Almost 40 years ago, millions of people knew the songs Davieswhen she was a funk legend, known for her sexy personality and her marriage to a Miles Davis. However, since the end of the 1980s Davis immersed herself in a quiet and humble life outside Pittsburgh: today, decades later, most people don't recognise her when she's shopping at the local supermarket Giant Eagle... Sure, there's no longer that crazy Afro hairstyle and obscenely thigh-high boots, however - we can still settle for a rich heritage and biography....

https://youtu.be/mQILEYw66Rg

An icon of an entire era, Betty born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, in July 1945.but she moved to Homsteadwhen she went to kindergarten. Like many black families who emigrated. from the south to Pittsburghand her father Davis took a job in a steel mill. The future star, her parents and her brother settled in a small house... After graduating from high school at the age of 17, Betty took a company bus. Greyhound to New Yorkwhere she enrolled in the city's Fashion Institute of Technology. There the girl 5'7". modelling for catwalks and magazines, all the while writing songs...

"I started writing music when I was 12 years old. I used to drive the neighbours crazy because I used to sing in my mother's kitchen all the time!" - laughs Betty.

Meet Miles Davis

В 1966 year Davies was mesmerised by a jazz trumpet player when she visited the club. Greenwich Village:

"I went to a concert and saw a handsome guy in a suit... I thought he looked fantastic! I got in touch with a photographer friend of mine and told him about this guy. My friend said it looked like Miles Davis. I had no idea who he was..."

A few days later, in another club, Betty ran into this mysterious guy again... And yes: he turned out to be a Miles Davis! This time, she says, the jazz legend sent one of his employees to ask her out for a drink during one of the breaks in his set ! The two ended up dating for a few years before legitimising their relationship in a 1968 year... At the time of the marriage, Betty was 24 years oldwhile Miles is 42.. The singer would later say:

"I learnt a lot from Miles musically! I always told him: "I should have been born your daughter..." Our relationship was very enlightening as far as my music was concerned: our communication broadened my horizons... I listened to Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky...".

Betty, in turn, introduced her husband to such contemporary musicians of the time as Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone.. Their relationship was short and very uneasy... In his autobiography 1989 years Miles Davis wrote about his relationship with the young woman he eventually married. He described her as a "beautiful young singer and songwriter" who he felt influenced his personal and professional life. With her background in fashion, she got him to trade in his button-down suits for leather suits and colourful scarves. He, in turn, persuaded her to sing. Miles Davis believes he is the reason she changed her style from classical jazz to more popular jazz.

"If Betty sang today, she'd be something like Madonna, something like Prince, only a woman. She was the beginning of it all when she sang as Betty Davis. She was ahead of her time!" he wrote.

However, as time went on, their relationship soured:

"She was very difficult to live with... We got to a point where I was very unhappy being married. I've always said that if you're unhappy with someone, you shouldn't be with that person..."

Musical career

Betty Davis She was a major influence not only on her husband, but also on a whole generation of artists, including Macy Gray and Janelle Monet. Her songs have been sampled by many contemporary artists, including rappers Ice Cube and Method Manas well as a rocker Lenny Kravitz. Davis herself describes herself as "a projectionist, not a singer." She was not Aretha Franklinbut she had an unusual voice. She couldn't be categorised... Her voice was hoarse, not the stylistic voice of many successful black singers of the early sixties 1970-хlike Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross or Dionne Warwick. Betty was a solo artist singing about her sexual prowess when she began recording her music after her divorce from Miles... Davis has widely demonstrated her sexual confidence in her melody "Nasty Gal." in 1975. On the album cover, the singer was depicted in nudity, lying with her legs spread.

Diane Williams was a popular radio disc jockey at a Washington radio station WHUR-96.3 FMHoward University's radio station from 1973 to 1975. According to her, Davis's music was constantly changing as the popularity of go-go grew...

"It was an active capital city. And people who loved go-go understood her version of funk, R&B, soul and rock," Williams says. "Given what was happening musically at the time with Sly and Jimi Hendrix and all the other bands, I think funk was popular at the time. Betty was the first woman to successfully merge those genres. She was a funk rock artist. She was the most funk rock performer..."

Simply put, in those years people didn't see women like her: she was sexy, she was fashionable... She was very avant-garde and appropriate for that era! You could say she was a revolutionary.

The main stages of creativity

Towards the beginning of the '70s Bette Davis started working on a set of songs and brought in a lot of great musicians to bring them to life: Greg Errico and Larry Graham of Sly Stone, Michael Carabello of Santana, the Poynter sisters and members of Tower Of Power... Her eponymous debut album finally appeared in 1973, and although it had no commercial impact, it was a groundbreaking compilation with many colourful songs! Davis was a sexual predator who didn't take captive, but screamed, grunted, purred and cooed her way through extroverted material such as "Anti Love Song," "Shoo-B-Doop And Cop Him," and "He Was a Big Freak.":

Religious groups protested many of her concert appearances (some shows were even cancelled), and radio stations understandably refused to broadcast her extreme works... That said, Davis was almost unstoppable with her second and third albums. Really... They Say I'm Different and Nasty Gal. also had little impact on her success. Although she would have made a great disco star, Betty Davis subsequently largely disappeared from the music scene... Already in the noughties Light in the Attic Records reissued three of Davis' released studio albums, as well as releasing her unreleased recording for the first time 1976 of the year called "Is It Love or Desire?"

Difficulties and conflicts...

In terms of documentary details, Davis often clashed with record executives, most of whom were white males, who tried to get her to act a certain way... And although she had a large audience, NAACP boycotted black radio stations across the country that played her music, arguing that the Davies and her lyrics have not been positive role models for black people America at the time.

"They were stopping my progression. They were stopping me from making a living," Davis recalls. "I was writing songs about something that was unheard of at the time. Here's what I think of my influence: it was very sexy!" she adds.

Her independence eventually led to the end of her career after a struggle with record company executives: Betty dug herself a hole. She refused to compromise or change... In fact, Davis herself admits that she destroyed her own career of her own free will. By the end. 1970-х label Island Records turned it down, and Davis couldn't find another sponsor. Then, in 1980 the year her father died. Davis returned to Homsteadto live with her mother... According to those close to her, her father's death was something Betty struggled to overcome: she struggled with mental illness but didn't want to talk about it... Even today, all these years later, Davis admits she had a "setback" after her father's death. "That was it," she says.

One last thing...

Today, afro curls and thigh-high boots are a thing of the past. She wears "comfortable" shoes and her once luxurious hair is neatly combed. Davies says she was just doing the music she believed in, but it was a different time, she says, and now she's focused on her "quiet life."

"I like that no one knows who I am when they see me. I like living quietly..."

Nevertheless, it would not be unreasonable to remember that she once composed good music and made people smile....