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All Music Guide:
Though she didn't call it third stream, and it wasn't associated with the genre, Hazel Scott was another musician who found a successful way to blend jazz and classical influences. Scott took classical selections and improvised on them, a practice dating back to the ragtime era. Such numbers as "Hungarian Rhapsody, no. 2" (Liszt) backed by "Valse in D Flat Major, op. 64 no. 1" (Chopin) were audience favorites, even if some critics suggested they smacked of gimmickry (which sometimes they did). Scott was also a good bebop soloist, nice ballad interpreter, fair blues player, and underrated vocalist. Her nightclub act was often more appealing than her albums, where the absence of mitigating circumstances like an audience and club setting resulted in her compositions getting more scrutiny than they could stand. Scott studied classical piano at Juilliard from the age of eight, while also playing jazz in clubs. She became an attraction at downtown and uptown branches of Cafe Society in the late '30s and early '40s. Scott had her own radio show in 1936, appeared on Broadway in 1938, and was in five films during the '40s, among them Rhapsody in Blue. She wrote such songs as "Love Comes Softly" and "Nightmare Blues." Scott later had her own television show and was married to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Their highly visible, high-profile relationship degenerated under the heat of a nationwide obsession with Powell's activities, influence, and behavior, finally ending in divorce. Scott recorded for Decca, Signature, Tioch, and Columbia, but made her finest jazz album for Charles Mingus' Debut label, Relaxed Piano Moods, in 1955. Mingus and Max Roach joined Scott on this session. It's her only date currently available on CD.
Wikipedia:
Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was an internationally known, American jazz and classical pianist and singer; she also performed as herself in several films. She was prominent as a jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950, she became the first woman of color to have her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show, featuring a variety of entertainment. To evade the political persecution of artists in the McCarthy era, Scott moved to Paris in the late 1950s and performed in France, not returning to the United States until 1967.
Born in Port of Spain, Hazel was taken at the age of four by her mother to New York. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, Scott was given scholarships from the age of eight to study at the Juilliard School. She began performing in a jazz band in her teens and was performing on radio at age 16.
Early years and education
Hazel Scott was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to Alma Long Scott, a musician. They moved to New York City when Hazel was four. Recognized as a child musical prodigy, the young Scott was awarded scholarships to study classical piano at the Juilliard School from the age of eight. As a teenager, she performed piano and trumpet with her mother’s "Alma Long Scott" all-girl jazz band, which sometimes featured Lil Hardin-Armstrong.
Music career
By the age of 16, Hazel Scott regularly performed for radio programs for the Mutual Broadcasting System, gaining a reputation as the “hot classicist.” In the mid-1930s, she also performed at the Roseland Dance Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra. Her early musical theatre appearances in New York included the Cotton Club Revue of 1938, Sing Out the News and The Priorities of 1942.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Scott performed jazz, blues, ballads, popular (Broadway songs and boogie-woogie) and classical music in various nightclubs. From 1939 to 1943 she was a leading attraction at both the downtown and uptown branches of Café Society. Her performances created national prestige for the practice of “swinging the classics”. By 1945, Scott was earning $75,000 ($968,207 today) a year.
In addition to Lena Horne, Scott was one of the first African-American women to garner respectable roles in major Hollywood pictures. She performed as herself in several features, notably I Dood It (MGM 1943), Broadway Rhythm (MGM 1944), with Lena Horne and in the otherwise all-white cast The Heat's On (Columbia 1943), Something to Shout About (Columbia 1943), and Rhapsody in Blue (Warner Bros 1945). In the 1940s, in addition to her film appearances, Scott was featured in Café Society’s From Bach to Boogie-Woogie concerts in 1941 and 1943 at Carnegie Hall.
She was the first woman of color to have her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show, which premiered on the DuMont Television Network on July 3, 1950. Thereafter, she guest starred in an episode of CBS's Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town musical series.
With the beginning of political intimidation during the years of Senator Joseph McCarthy's influence, Scott was called to testify by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Her television variety program was cancelled soon afterward on September 29, 1950. This was also a time of continued racism in the advertising industry and economic hardships for jazz musicians in general. Scott remained publicly opposed to McCarthyism and racial segregation throughout her career.
To evade the oppression in the United States, Scott moved to Paris in the late 1950s. She appeared in the French film Le Désordre et la Nuit’ (1958). She maintained a steady but difficult career in France and touring throughout Europe. She did not return to the US until 1967. By this time the Civil Rights Movement had led to federal legislation ending racial segregation and enforcing the protection of voting rights of all citizens; most African Americans in the South could vote again, after nearly 100 years of many being excluded from the franchise. Other social changes were underway.
Scott continued to play occasionally in nightclubs, while also appearing in daytime television until the year of her death. She made her television acting debut in 1973, on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, performing a wedding song at the nuptials of her "onscreen cousin", Carla Gray Hall, portrayed by Ellen Holly.
Scott recorded as the leader of various groups for Decca, Columbia and Signature, among them, a trio that consisted of Bill English and the double bass player Martin Rivera, and another featuring Charles Mingus on bass and Rudie Nichols on drums. Her album Relaxed Piano Moods on the Debut Record label, with Mingus and Max Roach, is generally her work most highly regarded by critics today.
Marriage
In 1945, Scott, who was a Catholic, married Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., a Baptist ministers and U.S. Congressman, in Connecticut. They had one child, Adam Clayton Powell III, but divorced in 1960 after a separation.
On January 19, 1961, she married Ezio Bedin, a Swiss-born comedian.
Death
On October 2, 1981, Hazel Scott died of cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She was 61 years old, and survived by her son Adam Clayton Powell III. She was buried at Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, near other musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Johnny Hodges, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Legacy
Scott was best-known internationally as a performer of jazz. She was also accomplished in politics, leading the way for African Americans in entertainment and film; and was successful in dramatic acting and classical music. She was noted for her swinging style, performing at the Milford Plaza Hotel in her last months.
