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SPEAKER_00: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Luvvie Ajayi-Jones. I'm a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, and host of the podcast, Professional Troublemaker. I'm so excited to be your guest host for this month of Woomanica. This month, we're highlighting prodigies, women who achieved greatness at a young age. This is especially a passion point for me because my latest book, Rising Troublemaker, a fear fighter manual for teens, reminds them that they are never too young to make a significant impact. Today, we're talking about a musical genius who was a brave advocate for equal rights in the entertainment industry. She dazzled audiences with her jazz renditions of the likes of Chopin and Bach, while bucking racial stereotypes and constraints to become one of the first Black women to host her own television show. Let's talk about Hazel Scott. Hazel Dorothy Scott was a young woman Hazel Dorothy Scott was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad on June 11th, 1920. She was the daughter of R. Thomas Scott, a West African scholar from England, and Alma Long Scott, a classically trained pianist, saxophonist, and music teacher. Hazel's propensity for music came early. As an infant, she would scream and cry when her mother's students would play the wrong note. At the time, no one thought anything of it, but when Hazel was three, she sat down at the piano and performed a church hymn that her grandmother would sing to her during nap time. This was just the beginning of Hazel's musical gifts. In 1924, her parents separated and Hazel moved to Harlem, New York with her mother and grandmother. To support the family, Alma worked briefly as a domestic maid before returning to music and playing in various bands. With musical connections, Hazel's household became a meeting ground for reputable African-American musicians during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Although she was surrounded by prominent musical legends, Hazel credited her mother as being the single biggest influence in her life. When Hazel was eight years old, her mother used her connections to get Hazel an audition at the Juilliard School of Music. This was unheard of at the time as the age requirement to attend Juilliard was 16. Nonetheless, Hazel performed a rendition of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor, which caused Professor Oscar Wagner to deem Hazel a genius and grant her a scholarship for private tutoring with him. With Professor Wagner and her mother's tutelage, Hazel mastered advanced piano techniques well beyond her years. From here, she began collecting accolades at a rapid pace. When Hazel turned 13, she joined her mother's jazz band as a pianist. Two years later, she performed with Count Basie's Big Band at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. She briefly hosted her own radio show on WOR after winning a local competition. And in 1938, she made her Broadway debut in Sing Out the News. To further prove she wasn't your average teenager, Hazel completed all of these musical feats while also graduating high school with honors. Hazel increased her stardom in 1939 when she became the headliner at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. Cafe Society was New York's first fully integrated nightclub that featured musical greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Duke Ellington. When Billie Holiday ended her residency at the club, she insisted Hazel replace her as the darling of Cafe Society. At 19 years old, Hazel was mesmerizing audiences with her jazz renditions of Chopin, Bach, and Rachmaninoff. She broke sales records on the Signature and Decca recording labels with her Bach to Boogie catalog. She performed across the country and was clear about one thing. She would not play before segregated audiences. This stipulation was included in all of her contracts, and if she showed up at a segregated venue, she would not perform but still be compensated. In the mid 1940s, Hazel took her talents to Los Angeles to make it on the big screen. She experienced racism in the form of only being cast as domestic workers, but she did not let this stop her. She turned down those parts and insisted on appearing as herself, a sophisticated woman with great musical talent. In this role, Hazel appeared in five films and was listed as Hazel Scott as herself in the credits. Hazel also demanded the same compensation as her white castmates. Because of her established stature, she was successful in these demands. She was earning $75,000, the equivalent of a little over a million dollars today. However, her outspokenness eventually brought her movie career to a close in 1945. Hazel returned to New York and shortly thereafter, began a scandalous affair with Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the first African-American elected to Congress from New York. At the time of their tryst, he was married, but still pursued her relentlessly. In the summer of 1945, the two got married and became the most high profile black couple in America. In 1946, Hazel gave birth to their only child, Adam Clayton Powell III. She traded in her glitzy nightclub lifestyle for a quiet domestic life upstate. Hazel put her career on the back burner while her husband pursued his political dreams. But in 1950, she was presented with an opportunity she couldn't refuse. The Dumont Network offered Hazel her own 50-minute show that would be nationally distributed three times a week. During her 15-minute segment, Hazel entertained audiences with a combination of classic, jazz, and boogie woogie blues. While her musical talents delighted viewers, a review in Variety said that her personality was the real draw of the show. Unfortunately, a few months into the run of her show, Hazel's name was published in the pamphlet that listed supposed communist sympathizers in entertainment. The House of Un-American Activities Committee targeted her for her civil rights efforts and her connection to Cafe Society, which was a suspected communist hangout. Most recently, Hazel's name was published in the pamphlet that listed the alleged communist hangout. Much to her husband's dismay, Hazel personally testified against these claims in front of the committee. But her efforts fell short, and the Hazel Scott show was canceled after just a few months on the air. Although Hazel's activism hurt her career, she did not regret it. She said, At this point, Hazel's already strained marriage reached its breaking point, and the couple separated in the mid-1950s. After a failed marriage and a permanently damaged career, Hazel found solace in the growing black expatriate community in Paris in 1957. Much like her mother's house, Hazel's home became a mecca for African-American musicians and artists like James Baldwin, and Mary Lou Williams. Hazel eventually returned to the U.S. in 1967. The music industry had turned to more Motown and British pop, and as a result, Hazel's jazzy sound was no longer valued. She performed at small clubs here and there, but her fame would never reach the height it once was. On October 2nd, 1981, Hazel Scott passed away from pancreatic surgery and cancer just two months after her final performance. Hazel Scott passed away from pancreatic cancer just two months after her final performance. All month, we're highlighting prodigies. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. You can order Rising Troublemaker everywhere books are sold. Special thanks to creators Jennie and Liz Kaplan
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