Welcome again to the subsequent chapter of BOSSIP’s Black Historical past Hidden Gems, our weekly Black Historical past Month collection devoted to uncovering ignored Black figures, moments, and milestones. This collection spotlights tales that historical past practically erased, however legacy refused to overlook.
Recognizing Black achievement throughout Black Historical past Month shouldn’t be solely about honoring triumph, however about reclaiming narratives of resilience, mind, and humanity that have been, in some instances, intentionally buried. Visionary virtuoso Hazel Scott’s expertise blazed trails throughout Broadway, movie, and her personal landmark TV present earlier than Oprah was even born. But her identify isn’t remembered with friends like Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne. Scott’s epic profession was lower brief for confronting Hollywood and the U.S. authorities about segregated crowds, racist portrayals of Black individuals, and political persecution a decade earlier than the Civil Rights Motion.
A Piano Prodigy Turns into A Star
Born in Trinidad on June 11, 1920 to West African scholar R. Thomas Scott and classically skilled pianist Alma Lengthy Scott, it appears that evidently Hazel Scott’s meteoric rise to the highest of leisure and liberation actions was future. By the age of three, she grew to become an area legend for taking part in piano by ear.
In line with PBS’s American Masters, Scotts moved to Harlem, New York, in 1924 on the top of the Harlem Renaissance. Scott’s mom took her to audition at Juilliard at eight, half the distinguished college’s minimal age. She improvised Rachmaninoff to compensate for fingers too small to achieve the entire keys, convincing Walter Damrosch to grant her a particular admission and scholarship. At 13, Scott adopted her mom’s musical footsteps to play in Alma Lengthy Scott’s All-Lady Jazz Band.
By 16, Scott hosted her personal radio present on WOR, the place she flexed complicated classical piano performances. She shared the stage with the Rely Basie Orchestra and made her 1938 Broadway debut in “Sing Out the Information.” Throughout her gig at Manhattan’s Yacht Membership, the 18-year-old perfects a signature type to “Swing the Classics” with jazz’s velocity and syncopation.
Hazel Scott Finds Her Large Break And Musical Residence At The Café Society
On the progressive Café Society, the primary desegregated nightclub within the U.S., Billie Vacation gave Scott her large break to exchange the “Unusual Fruit” singer as headliner. Her star continued rise at one of many hottest and most progressive venues within the nation. Scott’s first album, “Swinging the Classics,” grew to become a critically acclaimed and record-breaking success in 1940.
This fame and fortune grew to become leverage to combat for equality as she continued to climb. With followers like Paul Robeson, Sinatra, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, and Eleanor Roosevelt, Scott had the facility to demand in her contracts that she by no means carry out for segregated crowds. Scott famously cancelled an Austin, Texas present when she noticed the venue wasn’t built-in. “Why would anybody come to listen to me, a Negro, and refuse to sit down beside somebody identical to me?” she requested Time journal.
Breaking Down Boundaries In Hollywood
Scott didn’t change when Hollywood got here calling. Regardless of being a newcomer, Scott turned down 4 movie roles as a singing maid. Whereas the business decreased Black actors to servants, villains, and prostitutes, the triple risk’s contract stipulated she would solely play herself. Whereas Hattie McDaniel couldn’t discover reprieve from segregation lengthy sufficient to gather her historic Academy Award, Scott demanded ultimate approval of her track choice and provided her personal elegant wardrobe.
Scott grew to become the primary Afro-Caribbean lady in main Hollywood roles like I Dood It (1943), Broadway Rhythm (1944), and Rhapsody In Blue (1945). Large display success didn’t final lengthy after filming The Warmth’s On (1943). Scott and Lena Horne have been the one Black stars on an all-white forged, the place rampant racism compelled the outspoken advocate to take a stand.
Scott halted manufacturing for 3 days over a efficiency the place Black ladies wearing soiled aprons despatched their males off to struggle. She known as it unrealistic and demanded a wardrobe true to the delight of her individuals. She gained the battle, however a studio government vowed that the prolific pianist would by no means ebook one other movie once more.
Hazel Scott Makes Historical past With Her Personal TV Present & Makes An Enemy Of The U.S. Authorities
After marrying progressive pastor-turned-New York Councilman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1945, Scott stopped acting at nightclubs and Café Society. The facility couple welcomed a son, Adam Clayton Powell III. She went on a 35-week nationwide tour, nonetheless demanding forfeiture for any bookings at segregated golf equipment, together with the Jim Crow South. In line with PBS, Martin Luther King Jr. later informed Scott her efficiency was “the primary time I sat in a non-segregated viewers within the south was at one in all your concert events.”
In 1950, Scott grew to become the primary Black broadcast TV host with the “Hazel Scott Present” on the Dumont Tv community. No recordings of her present survived, nevertheless it was so well-liked that it expanded to a nationwide airing thrice per week.
That very same 12 months, McCarthyism pressured Scott to decide on between preventing for freedom and newfound success when the “Purple Channels” listed her as a Communist. She was one of many few entertainers to insist on testifying earlier than the Home Un-American Committee (HUAC) to clear her identify.
She denied what she believed have been misconceptions based mostly on her affiliation with the Café Society. Nonetheless, essentially the most damning “Un-American” factor Scott did was defy racism at each flip, together with a landmark 1949 lawsuit for discrimination when a Pasco, Washington restaurant refused to serve her. Scott denounced the checklist of suspected sympathizers, HUAC, and any platform that conceded by taking part within the blacklisting.
“The actors, musicians, artists, composers, and the entire women and men of the humanities are keen and anxious to assist, to serve. Our nation wants us extra right this moment than ever earlier than. We shouldn’t be written off by the vicious slanders of little and petty males,” she bravely mentioned in a 14-page assertion.
As soon as Blacklisting Ends Hazel Scott’s U.S. Profession, She Begins Over In Paris
One week later, the community canceled her hit present as sponsors pulled out. Scott left for Europe as blacklisting ruined her U.S profession, befriending Black ex-pats like James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, and Dizzy Gillespie. As Scott’s marriage declined, her profession revived with a European live performance tour. In 1955, she recorded one of the vital necessary jazz albums of the twentieth century, Relaxed Piano Moods, with Max Roach and Charlie Mingus.
In 1963, she and James Baldwin organized an indication of African-Individuals on the U.S. embassy in Paris to help the March on Washington. Scott quickly returned to the States, solely to seek out Motown and Rock changed Jazz and Blues.
Scott targeted on her son’s rising household and continued to play golf equipment and concert events. She quickly recorded three albums in 1979: “All the time,” “After Ideas,” and “After Hours.”
In 1981, Hazel Scott died of pancreatic most cancers. Along with a loving household, she left behind an incomparable legacy of genius, innovation, advocacy, and bravado within the face of overwhelming oppression and injustice. Tragically, too few keep in mind Scott’s identify and contributions. Alicia Keys put her again within the highlight on the 61st Grammy Awards with an homage of enjoying two pianos directly, like Scott famously did with mesmerizing class and ease.
