Betty Davis, Iconic Funk Singer, Has Died

Iconic funk singer Betty Davis has died, Rolling Stone reports. The news was confirmed to Rolling Stone by Davis’ close friend, Danielle Maggio (an ethnomusicologist who has been researching the singer’s body of work), as well as Allegheny County communications director Amie Downs, who said that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis’ records were distinctive thanks to her wild and overtly sexual vocal performances. The first, her self-titled debut, arrived in 1973. She followed it with two more: 1974’s They Say I’m Different and 1975’s Nasty Gal. Before her own music career took off, Davis married Miles Davis in 1968. The couple remained together for only one year, but it proved to be an influential relationship for the jazz musician. She introduced him to the rock icons of the time, including guitarist Jimi Hendrix. And, not only did Miles go include Betty on the cover of his 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro, but also the album contained the song “Mademoiselle Mabry.”

Born in North Carolina, Betty Mabry ended up slightly farther north in Pittsburgh, where she spent her childhood. She eventually moved to New York in the 1960s, and flourished within the city’s artistic scene. For her debut album, Davis worked with bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (of Sly and the Family Stone), keyboardist Merl Saunders, and guitarists Neal Schon and Douglas Rodriguez. Slow sales plagued the album, as well as her two follow-ups, and she slowly receded from view. All three albums were later reissued along with her early sessions with Miles Davis and a previously unreleased 1976 LP, Crashin’ from Passion.