Do you ever find yourself wanting to do more for society than you feel like you can, due to work or other obligations? It certainly can be a challenge to fuse things like activism and social justice to the 9-5, but there are many artists who managed to do so, if you look back at history. Greetings – I’m Loki Karuna, and on this edition of Noteworthy you and I will look back at some of the work of the legendary Hazel Scott.
Hazel Scott was born in Trinidad, but moved to New York with her mother at age four. She was a child prodigy, which allowed her to perform for radio and live events as a student. Equally versed in both classical and jazz, Hazel found little difficulty with tunes like this – the jazz classic known as ‘Round Midnight.
In 1950, Hazel’s skills led her to becoming the first Black person to host her own TV show, but like many Black artists of the time, she was quickly removed from her platform after speaking out against racial discrimination. Thankfully, this setback was only temporary – she’d eventually return to television while continuing her work as a musician, until her death in 1981. Hazel Scott: musician, TV host, activist, and one of history’s most Noteworthy individuals.
Noteworthy is a production of WDAV classical public radio.
Pictured: Hazel Scott by James J. Kriegsmann.