John Morrison on World Cafe
The cover of Call Me, Sylvester’s seventh studio album.
Courtesy of the artist
World Cafe
Celebrating Sylvester: The disco icon who defied all expectations
“He kind of brought this broad approach to gender presentation, not just visually, but even in his singing,” says World Cafe correspondent John Morrison.
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 a disco icon who defied expectations in everything he did.
“He kind of brought this broad approach to gender presentation, not just visually, but even in his singing,” Morrison says. “Sometimes you hear him, you’re not 100% sure if you’re listening to a man or a woman or neither.”
In this session, Morrison gets into Sylvester’s life, music and the legacy he left on dance music and the culture at large.
“He sent an affirming message that there is no real limits to expression and that expression should be fearless and present,” Morrison says.
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.