Celebrating Betty Davis: The funk vanguard who was ‘punk before punk’

February is Black History Month — and each week, all month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison is here to talk about a different trailblazer and maverick of Black music.

These musicians took risks and pushed boundaries, and this hour, we’re talking about someone who truly embodies this theme: funk pioneer Betty Davis.

Morrison says the music she released in the ’70s was bold, brash and uncompromising.

“In a way, Betty Davis was punk before punk,” he says.

In this session, Morrison talks about how Davis was ahead of her time and how her influence is still being felt today.

“Betty Davis’ unwillingness to compromise really did the best thing that a progressive artist can do,” he says. “It opened up possibilities about what other musicians could do on a record, what you could talk about.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.