Betty Davis

She’s most often touted as the supermodel spouse of jazz’s most famous name, but Betty Mabry Davis more than deserves to be considered on her own terms. Though she may have inadvertently inspired the “jazz fusion” movement by introducing Miles Davis to Hendrix, Sly, and a multi-hued psychedelic wardrobe, Betty was much more than a behind-the-scenes social mover, and her self titled debut stands as one of the hardest funk LPs ever put to wax. With the help of some famous friends, among them Larry Graham and Greg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone, Betty recorded a lyrically subversive and musically uncompromising masterpiece. Greg and Larry cling to the rhythms of hard driving songs like “Anti Love Song” and “Ooh Yeah” with the tenacity of hardened veterans, creating a lurching and often shockingly abrasive sonic background for Betty’s unflinching tales of triumphant female sexuality. On the epic “Steppin' In Her I. Miller’s Shoes” Betty tells of a hard edged groupie driven to despair over a teeth clenching funk racket that evokes the primordial blues of Howlin’ Wolf as much as it does the sinuous funk of James Brown.