We will never see another Hazel Scott.
Though you may not have heard that name until right now, you can meet her any time you tune into the public television series “American Masters: The Disappearance of Miss Scott.” You will have a maddening time though, learning how this woman — with her immense musical talents, considerable physical beauty, bravery in the face of racism and singular style — dipped into anonymity.
She might have remained hidden had current music star Alicia Keys not mentioned Scott’s name during the 2019 Grammy Awards. I like to think that was one of the motivating factors in inspiring Nicole London, who directed and produced the documentary, having created fine “American Masters” program about such very well-known stars as Sammy Davis Jr., Miles Davis and Marvin Gaye. She knows the territory and is a skillful storyteller.
There is so much to Scott’s life, a few villains too, in 90 minutes that thrill and enlighten and remind us how rough women had it in most fields in the early decades of last century (and still true for too many). But many of Scott’s contemporaries were able to break through, among them Billie Holiday, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne … the list is not long but it shimmers.
Scott was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1920, a child prodigy introduced to the piano by her mother, who soon moved with the family to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. By the time she was 15, adept at playing classical music while partaking in jazz, she was making a career in New York’s best clubs (Café Society was her club home and she packed the place). She bought a home, cared for her mother and grandmother and grabbed the attention of Hollywood.
Talented? Check.
Beautiful? You bet.
Charismatic? Yep.
Obedient? Not so much. And though she would make a few movies, she fought strenuously against portraying or being in movies that offered negatively stereotypical roles. When cast as an entertainer in the 1943 film “The Heat’s On,” she clashed with studio boss Harry Cohn over the shabby way the costume designer was dressing Black women in a scene. No one won an argument with autocratic studio bosses, and Scott’s movie career was over. That film features one of the most famous piano-playing segments in entertainment history.
She was still welcomed at clubs, usually playing in her trio (Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums), in recording studios and on that “new” outlet, television. And she could sing too.
She also, and here’s a stunning surprise, was the first Black American to have her own television show: “The Hazel Scott Show,” which ran during the summer of 1950. (The actress and singer Ethel Waters hosted a one-night special in 1939 and Nat King Cole had a program later in 1950.)
On “American Masters,” we also visit her short marriage to politician-pastor Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who was even more famous at the time. And it is good to meet their only son, Adam Clayton Powell III, a journalist and media executive. He remembers when his mother was called to testify at the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He remembers sitting at the dinner table with his mom and dad. “My father said, ‘Why are you doing this? You can’t win with these people. These people are going to get you.’ She said, ‘No, they’re harming a lot of people, not just me. I’ve got to go or tell them they are the un-Americans.’ My father was shaking his head. He said, ‘You can’t win.’”
He was right. After her testimony, her TV show was canceled and club dates vanished. Scott moved to Paris, where she found success in nightclubs. Divorce came in 1960 and eventually a return to the States in 1967, where she performed on occasion in clubs and a few times on TV soap operas.
Actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph provides some sensitive narration. Most of that is taken from Scott’s autobiography; I will be the first in line if some smart publisher wisely publishes it. Other voices come from actor Tracie Thoms, jazz musicians Camille Thurman, Jason Moran and others.
After Scott died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, she was buried in Flushing Cemetery in New York. She’s there now, alongside jazz giants Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. She belongs.
Available for streaming at schedule.wttw.com
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
