Monday, February 14, 2022

R&B Singer, David Bowie Muse, Ava Cherry Releases Memoir

During the mid-1970s when the musical chameleon christened David Robert Jones, but better known to
the earthlings who consumed his works during his hall-of-fame career as David Bowie was near the pinnacle of his creative powers, he moved to the US as he gravitated towards funk and soul.

During much of that period, which saw the then relatively unknown outside of the U.K. artist, become a worldwide sensation, Ava Cherry was by his side. A former fashion model turned musician, she was Bowie’s lover, backup singer, collaborator and friend.

Their five-year relationship inspired one of his greatest hits and most beloved songs “Golden Years,” and Cherry’s influence on Bowie during that period was essential in the development of his breakthrough album from that period, “Young Americans.”

Now the nu-soul diva is finally revealing what it was like to work with the global rock icon in the 1970s in her new book (available now at major retailers, “All That Glitters: The Ava Cherry Story.”

Cherry told iHeartRadio’s biography podcast series “Off the Record” in 2021: “I was already hooked. There was nothing I could do about how I felt. I wasn't going to let him go,” of meeting Bowie and making love with him only to be introduced to his wife in the morning and told they had an open marriage.

She was not the only one addicted apparently. Cherry's formative years on the Chicago black music scene shaped her soul music sensibilities and she shared that influence with the rock great whose copy of James Brown’s “Live at the Apollo” had been one of his most treasured possessions as a child.

Cherry took him to the black music mecca and soon he had recruited house band’s guitarist, Carlos
Alomar and headed to Philadelphia's Sigma Sound, the center of the "Philly Soul" explosion, and vowed to cut a record that emulated the funky sounds of bands like the Spinners, and the O'Jays.

That album “Young Americans” became Bowie’s first to reach the top 10 of the Billboard charts in the US, and its lead single “Fame” — which Cherry can be heard on — his first No. 1 hit in the country.

Eventually, Cherry and Bowie’s partnership collapsed under the weight of his drug use and money woes according to her interview with “Off the Record,” but she never stopped caring for him.

“I stayed in love with him for so long because I knew I didn't do anything wrong for us to break up,” she said. “It was just the circumstance."

Cherry remained friendly with Bowie in the following years, even attending the engagement party for his second wife Iman and remained active in the music world as well, first as a backup singer for R &B legend Luther Vandross and eventually as a solo artist.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Funk Pioneer, Betty Davis, Dies at 77


Betty Davis, a North Carolina native who transitioned from modeling to music during her storied career and earned the moniker Queen of Funk, died at 77 Wednesday. 

The news of Davis' death was confirmed to Rolling Stone by her friend Danielle Maggio, an ethnomusicologist whose work focused on Betty’s music and life.

Amie Downs, communications director for Allegheny County where Davis lived, told the magazine that Davis’ cause of death was natural.

It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of Betty Davis, a multitalented music influencer and pioneer rock star, singer, songwriter, and fashion icon,” Connie Portis, another longtime friend of Davis, said in a statement. “Most of all, Betty was a friend, aunt, niece, and beloved member of her community of Homestead, Pennsylvania, and of the worldwide community of friends and fans. At a time to be announced, we will pay tribute to her beautiful, bold, and brash persona. Today we cherish her memory as the sweet, thoughtful, and reflective person she was…. There is no other.

Davis, who spent one-year married to fellow music legend Miles Davis in the 1960s, recorded the majority of her music between 1964 and 1975. Her signature raspy purr, combined with often erotic lyrics and outrageous costumes, helped her rack up a slew of hits including “Get Ready for Betty,” “It’s My Life,” and “If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up” amongst others. Davis recorded three solo albums in all and wrote much of her own music. 

Snoop Dogg Announces Acquisition of Death Row Records

B.O.D.R., Snoop Dogg's first album for his  
newly acquired label drops on Feb. 11.

Thirty years after signing the deal with Death Row Records that launched him to superstardom at age 21, Snoop Dogg is returning to the seminal west coast hip-hop label as its boss.

The rapper announced he acquired the Death Row Records brand from MNRK Music Group, which is controlled by private equity funds managed by global investment firm Blackstone, for an undisclosed sum on Wednesday.

"It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the
founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me," the artist said of the move which puts him in charge of the once prestigious label founded by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, the D.O.C. and Dick Griffey in 1992. "... I’m looking forward to building the next chapter of Death Row Records.”

Snoop Dogg has pursued ownership of the label, which reigned supreme over rap for a stretch in the 1990s, thanks in part to releases from himself and labelmates Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur, for quite some time.

Just last year he told the hosts of the "Million Dollaz Worth of Game" podcast that all of Death Row — which filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and was acquired at auction three years later for $18 million by WIDEawake Entertainment and eventually landing at Blackstone and MNRK — should be in his hands.



“I should be running that sh—t. Just like I’m [in] a position at Def Jam, Death Row means more to me because I helped create that. I think they should give me that and let me run that shit with the merchandise out, with the music all over the world. [Add] some new West Coast acts.”
To celebrate Snoop Dogg is releasing a new album, B.O.D.R., an acronym that stands for “Back on Death Row," on Friday.

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