1. Hazel Dorothy Scott was a Trinidadian jazz and classical pianist and singer.
31 Facts About Hazel Scott
1. 2.
Hazel Scott was a child musical prodigy, receiving scholarships to study at the Juilliard School when she was eight.
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Hazel Scott was active as a jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
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Hazel Scott subsequently moved to Paris, France, in 1957 and began performing in Europe, not returning to the United States until 1967.
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Hazel Scott's parents had separated by this time, and Scott lived with her mother and grandmother.
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When Hazel Scott was eight years old, she began studying with Professor Paul Wagner of the Juilliard School of Music.
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Hazel Scott's performances created national prestige for the practice of "swinging the classics".
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Hazel Scott refused to take roles in Hollywood playing a "singing maid", and she turned down the first four roles she was offered for this reason.
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Hazel Scott performed as herself in the films I Dood It, Broadway Rhythm with Lena Horne, in the otherwise all-white cast of The Heat's On, Something to Shout About, and Rhapsody in Blue.
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Hazel Scott appeared in five Hollywood films in all, always insisting on the credit line "Miss Hazel Scott as Herself", and wearing her own clothes and jewelry to protect her image.
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Hazel Scott was the first person of African descent to have their own television show in America, The Hazel Scott Show, which premiered on the DuMont Television Network on July 3,1950.
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Variety reported that "Hazel Scott has a neat little show in this modest package," its "most engaging element" being Scott herself.
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Hazel Scott refused to perform in segregated venues when she was on tour.
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Hazel Scott was once escorted from the city of Austin, Texas by Texas Rangers because she refused to perform when she discovered that black and white patrons were seated separately.
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In 1949, Hazel Scott brought a suit against the owners of a Pasco, Washington restaurant when a waitress refused to serve Hazel Scott and her traveling companion, Mrs Eunice Wolfe, because "they were Negroes".
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Hazel Scott's victory helped African Americans challenge racial discrimination in Spokane, as well as inspiring civil rights organizations "to pressure the Washington state legislature to enact the Public Accommodations Act" in 1953.
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On returning to full health, Hazel Scott continued to perform in the United States and Europe, even getting sporadic bookings on television variety shows like Cavalcade of Stars and guest starring in an episode of CBS Television's Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town musical series.
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Hazel Scott remained publicly opposed to McCarthyism and racial segregation throughout her career.
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Hazel Scott appeared in the French Gilles Grangier crime film Le desordre et la nuit.
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Hazel Scott continued to perform occasionally in nightclubs, while appearing on daytime television, until the year of her death.
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Hazel Scott made her television acting debut in 1970, performing as Dolly Martin in the NBC drama The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, the "If I Can't Sing, I'll Listen" episode.
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On January 19,1961, Hazel Scott married Ezio Bedin, a Swiss-Italian comedian who was 15 years her junior; they divorced a few years later, before her return to the US.
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Hazel Scott had heard about the Baha'i Faith from her longtime friend Dizzy Gillespie, who joined the religion in early 1968.
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Hazel Scott's singing was praised by Whitney Young, executive director of the National Urban League, who was speaking at the event.
25.
On October 2,1981, Hazel Scott died of cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
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Hazel Scott is buried at Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, near other musicians including Louis Armstrong, Johnny Hodges, and Dizzy Gillespie.
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Hazel Scott was renowned as a virtuosic jazz pianist, in addition to her successes in dramatic acting and classical music.
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Hazel Scott used her status as one of the best-known African-American entertainers of her generation to shine a spotlight on issues of racial injustice and civil rights.
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Hazel 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 trio with Charles Mingus on bass and Rudie Nichols on drums.
30.
Hazel Scott's unique swinging style and fusion of jazz and classical influences kept her in demand for performances through the very end of her life.
31.
On February 21,2025, the American Masters documentary The Disappearance of Miss Hazel Scott aired on PBS stations.