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. Mingusand Max Roach joined Scott on this session. It's her only date currently available on CD.
Biography by Michael G. Nastos - Source: allmusic
Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was a jazz and classical pianist and singer.
She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in New York City from the age of four. She performed extensively on piano as a child, then trained at the Juilliard School. She appeared in the production Priorities of 1942 and performed numerous times at the famed Carnegie Hall.
Her motion picture career included the films Something To Shout About, Dood It, Broadway Rhythm, The Heat's On, and Rhapsody in Blue.
She was known for improvising on classical themes and also played boogie-woogie, blues, and ballads. 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. However, the show was canceled in 1950 due it being unable to get a sponsor when she was accused of being a Communist sympathizer (she denied the charges) due to her public opposition to McCarthyism and racial segregation. The final broadcast was September 29, 1950.
Her album Relaxed Piano Moods on the Debut Record label, with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, is generally the album most highly regarded by critics today.
She was married to U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. from 1945 to 1956, by whom she had one child before their divorce, Adam Clayton Powell III.
She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61 on October 2, 1981 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Source: last.fm
A Chance, Performs Liszt, Great Piano, Foggy Day,
March of Dimes, Caisson Number, I DooD It, Body
and Soul, Like Someone in Love, Dark Eyes, Taking
a Chance on Love, The White Keys and The Black Keys, The Man I Love, Peace of Mind, Popular Videos (126 videos), Lament, Pitch, Embraceable You, The
Jeep is Jumpin', Swinging The Classics, Mountain
Greenery, Hungarian Rhapsody and Minute Waltz, Git
Up From There, On the Sunny Side of the Street, Three Little Words, Blues in B Flat, Ritual Fire Dance,
All Tracks (55 videos) and You Tube Mix.
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