4/16/2023 0 Comments Hazel scott![]() Read more: 19 black musicians who have shaped the classical music world >įor Hazel, politics were closely intertwined with her music: she refused to perform in venues that enforced a racially segregated audience. By 1945, Scott was earning $75,000 (over $1m in today’s money) a year. She had fans in Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra, had a chauffeur, and had her hands insured by Lloyds of London. Scott soloed at Carnegie Hall, and in 1940 – at just 20 years old – she released her debut album, Swinging the Classics, to rave reviews. Café Society was one of first clubs that didn’t segregate black and white audience members, and it featured the best talent of the day – from Miles Davis to Nat King Cole. She headlined at New York’s Café Society, the first proper nightclub in America, thanks to a good word from her contemporary and friend, Billie Holiday. Read more: Nina Simone plays a stunning Bach-style fugue in the middle of her song > Then, Hazel’s career skyrocketed. ![]() She started playing in nightclubs and became known for her skills in improvisation and ‘jazzing up the classics’ – playing Bach, Mozart and Liszt sped-up and syncopated. In her teens, Hazel played in a jazz band and hosted her own radio show. Hazel Scott was a musical prodigy, and her mother had hoped she would pursue a classical career – but her daughter had other ideas. One of the judges labelled her a ‘genius’, and she was granted a scholarship. The young pianist marched in, and a virtuosic Rachmaninov Prelude flowed from her fingertips. Minimum entry age was 16, but Alma insisted they let Hazel audition. “She was the single biggest influence in my life,” Hazel once said of her mother, according to an article by Karen Chilton for Smithsonian Magazine.Īged eight, Alma set her daughter up for an audition at the Juilliard School. But after moving to Harlem, New York City, with her daughter, then aged four, she recognised her daughter’s natural gift for playing the piano and moved her attentions from developing her own career to nurturing Hazel’s talent. Her mother, Alma Scott, dreamed of making it in music. Hazel Scott was born in 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to a classical pianist mother and an absentee academic father. Read more: 9 black composers who changed the course of classical music history > So, why has Hazel Scott’s name been all but erased from music history? Here’s her story. Around the same time, she married Adam Clayton Powell, one of the most high-profile politicians of her day. Scott used her incredible influence to help make the arts a richer, more inclusive place. ![]() Scott’s blinding success in the music industry led to a ground-breaking new network TV show – the first to be hosted by a black American. She was a phenomenally gifted pianist and improviser, known for ‘jazzing up’ classic works by Bach and Mozart, and had the most high-profile fans you could wish for – from Frank Sinatra to Duke Ellington. Throughout the mid-20th century, Hazel Scott was the toast of the New York jazz and popular music scene. But when she stood up against racial segregation and stereotyping, the industry blacklisted her – and her name was all but erased from the history books.Ī virtuoso pianist and jazz singer, the first black American to host her own TV show, and an outspoken critic of racial discrimination: in the 1940s and ‘50s, Trinidadian-born entertainer and activist Hazel Scott was hard to ignore. It does not store any personal data.Hazel Scott was a pioneering jazz pianist, and the first black American to host her own network TV show. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. ![]() The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. ![]()
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