GET READY FOR BETTY: A FUNK-FILLED TRIBUTE TO BETTY DAVIS

Revolutionary art-rock and new-wave goddess Nona Hendryx is a vocalist, songwriter, musician, and multimedia artist. Tackling social issues, love, and politics, Hendryx’s career spans decades of sound and style evolution. Longtime fans know her as one of the groundbreaking group Labelle, and their No.1 worldwide hit "Lady Marmalade (Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi C'est Soir?)" Hendryx came into her own as a solo artist, post Labelle, on Rock infused albums including her 2012 album Mutatis Mutandis (changing those things which need to be changed), Hendryx blends her music with lyrics expressing a global, social, and political zeitgeist, and is an Ambassador for Artistry in Music for Berklee College in Boston Conservatory and BerkleeNYC. She curated and performed in a production she created for The Metropolitan Museum entitled "Nona Hendryx and Disciples of Sun Ra in the Temple of Dendur." She composed music for The Roundabout Theatre's production of the Broadway debut of Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, directed by Charles R. Wright, and received a grant from Jazz South Arts to compose music for a new play about People of Color in the fields of science, Young Nerds of Color by Melinda Lopez, directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons at Boston’s Central Square Theater. An Afrofuturist and visionary, Nona develops XR installations, incorporating Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality. Nona is passionate about music, visual art, and technology and continues to be a prolific artist.

Betty Davis was born Betty Mabry, in North Carolina in 1944. After being raised in Pittsburgh, Mabry moved to New York City to enroll at the Fashion Institute of Technology. While in New York, Mabry worked as a DJ and print model, and began to explore music making. In 1964, she released her first single, “Get Ready for Betty.” Her first major writing credit was in 1967, when she penned “Uptown (to Harlem),” a hit single for the soul group, The Chambers Brothers. The next year, Mabry released several of her songs on Columbia Records in a collaboration with South African music legend, Hugh Masekela.

Later in 1968, Mabry picked up the surname “Davis” after marrying jazz innovator and trumpeter, Miles Davis. Too often, extraordinary women are relegated to being footnotes to the men to whom they are attached. However, in this case, Betty is often recognized as the person who had an extraordinary influence on Miles – and in a very short period of time. Her sense of style, both fashion and musical, combined with her own music industry network connections had a transformational effect on her husband. Though the marriage only lasted a year and the couple divorced in 1969, Betty Davis is credited with introducing Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. Those introductions, both to the people and their music, would have a lasting effect on Miles Davis, and forever change the trajectory of his career – and in certain ways, contribute to the electric evolution of Jazz. Indeed, some music historians believe that it is under Betty Davis’ influence that Miles Davis began experimenting with electronic music technology, which led to the development of Jazz Fusion.

In the early 1970s, Davis signed a record deal with Woodstock Festival promoter Michael Lang’s Just Sunshine Records label and released her self-titled debut album in 1973. Often described as funk (though soul, progressive punk, and rock would all be equally accurate), the album consists of all her own original songs. It features members of Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, and Tower of Power, as well as the Pointer Sisters, and Sylvester. Davis followed her debut with They Say I’m Different in 1974. Only a year later, and now signed to Island Records, Davis released her third album, Nasty Gal in 1975.

While Davis never crossed over into commercial success, she made a mark on generations to come with her sound and with a stage persona that was equal parts bold expression of a revolutionary femininity and creative mastery. Like the names of her albums, the titles of Betty Davis’ songs provide a window on her brazen approach: “If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up,” “Anti Love Song,” “Game Is My Middle Name,” “Don’t Call Her No Tramp,” and “F.U.N.K.” In an era where lyrics often described women as objects of desire, Betty Davis provided a sharp contrast. Together with her confrontational and overtly sexual lyrics, which resulted in Davis’ songs being banned from radio and her shows boycotted by religious and civil organizations, the rough texture of her vocals announced her subjectivity.

Davis left the music business and pursued a quiet life in Pittsburgh starting in the late 1970s. Since her death in 2022, numerous musicians, artists, public figures, and everyday people celebrate her legacy around the world.