Betty Davis obituary
msn.comUptown (to Harlem), which appeared on a hit album by the Chambers Brothers in 1967. When she met Davis, introduced by Devon Wilson, Jimi Hendrix’s girlfriend, Mabry had just ended a relationship with the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela.
Davis had recently divorced his first wife, the dancer Frances Taylor. At the time he was trying to find a way out of the confines of a world where his adoring audiences expected him to wear narrow-cut Italian suits in fine fabrics while exploring the pensive cadences of My Funny Valentine in the way that had brought him fame and wealth.
Under his new wife’s influence, Davis listened to Hendrix and Sly Stone. “Whatever I got into, he got into,” she said. He put her picture on the cover of an album, Filles de Kilimanjaro, which included a long track titled Mademoiselle Mabry, based on a lick from a Hendrix song, The Wind Cries Mary.
His former wardrobe was replaced by buckskin-fringed jackets, silk scarves and freaky sunglasses. Over a band blending rock textures with bottom-heavy funk beats, he played trumpet through a wah-wah pedal.
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