Betty Davis

This surprise release has already shaped up to be one of the year's hottest.  The bulk of Betty Davis' never-before-released or bootlegged Columbia sessions were produced by Miles Davis and Teo Macero. Her accompanists remain the stuff of legend: drummer Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (which would play its final gig nearly a month later), bassist Billy Cox (who'd replace Noel Redding in Hendrix's new band), and a host of musicians in Miles' orbit: guitarist John McLaughlin, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter had all played on In a Silent Way, which would be released that July, and bassist Harvey Brooks and electric pianist Larry Young would join Miles, McLaughlin, Hancock and Shorter in the sessions for a new album that August, to be released in 1970 as the landmark Bitches Brew.  Throw in two sides of a single (one represented by an alternate take) produced by Jerry Fuller and Hugh Masekela, and you have an incomparable set of smoking R&B and funk!