**Trigger Warning: This post contains stories of attempted suicide. Please skip this post if this is a topic you struggle with**

Hazel Scott was one of those people who possessed an innate talent for music the world has rarely seen. It was in her blood, a part of who she was, yet her memory has almost been largely lost to history. A master of the ivories, Hazel rivaled the talents of her fellow jazz contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young. She was like totally BFF’s with Billie Holiday and had fond memories of strutting down the streets of New York with a young ‘lil Frank Sinatra.

So why have you probably never heard of this amazingly accomplished and talented woman before? Beyond her extraordinary abilities as a pianist, Hazel was also an outspoken and ardent Civil Rights activist. And like many other liberal artists and activists during her time, she found herself in the hot seat in front of Joseph McCarthy’s House of Un-American Activities Committee which used its unbridled power to weed out dissidents and silence anyone who so as dared challenge the status quo.

A child prodigy, she was studying music at the Juilliard School by the age of 8 and was regularly performing publicly throughout New York City by the age of 13. She was one of the first Afro-Caribbean women to star in Hollywood movies, frequently fighting (and winning the right) to appear as herself with final approval over her costumes and final edits. She was also the first black actor to star in her own national television show and frequently refused to perform for crowds that were segregated.

Jump in the line, rock your body as we go back in time

Now that I have Harry Belafonte stuck in your head, let’s take a deep dive into Hazel’s life. Born on June 11, 1920 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Hazel was the only surviving child of Alma Long Scott and R. Thomas Scott. Alma, an aspiring concert pianist, frequently taught music lessons out of the family home and worked odd jobs while Thomas was a scholar of linguistics and languages with ambitions of becoming a college English professor.

Unfortunately, Thomas was basically a deadbeat dad, and by the time Hazel was 3 years old he had virtually abandoned his wife and daughter. Alma turned to her own mother Margaret to help care for Hazel while she worked tirelessly to support them while also still practicing day and night for her own musical career.

Little did Alma know, however, while she was off practicing and performing, little Hazel was absorbing everything she did. One day as grandmother Margaret drifted off to sleep for a midday nap, she was awoken by a 3 year old Hazel playing the hymn Gentle Jesus pitch perfect on Alma’s piano. Completely shocked, Margaret quickly called for her neighbors to come hear little Hazel playing piano all on her own. A crowd gathered at the door to witness the unlikely scenario. Alma soon appeared and couldn’t believe her eyes (or ears). Without any training, her young daughter clearly had an unnatural gift for piano. 3 year old Hazel quickly became a hit throughout their neighborhood, frequently playing piano at neighborhood parties and church gatherings.

With Hazel’s uncanny ability quickly blossoming, Alma decided to set aside her own musical aspirations to focus on her daughter. Looking for a fresh start, Alma and 4 year old Hazel set off for a new life in America, headed for Harlem where grandmother Margaret had recently relocated. Upon arriving, Margaret, Alma, and Hazel quickly moved into an apartment building filled with extended family from Trinidad and Tobago.

Harlem was a completely new world and there was no escaping the racist treatment Hazel’s family was now susceptible to living in America. As the adults worked tirelessly to make ends meet, word started to spread of the living conditions the Scott family lived in. Smelling fresh blood, a group of young men broke in to the family apartment and beat Hazel in their attempts to rob the family.

Hazel was again targeted in another incident that cemented the harsh reality of their new home. One afternoon as Hazel played on the sidewalk with a fellow neighborhood girl, Hazel was forcefully shoved into a deep trench that had recently been excavated for the new subway. The offending girl quickly ran away as workmen helped a bloodied Hazel out. Tensions in the diverse neighborhood were high and the family was aghast at the treatment of young Hazel.

As the family settled into their new abode, Alma poured all of her free time into training Hazel on the fundamentals of piano playing, adhering to a daily regimen of scales, etudes, and exercises. It paid off when in 1928, at a mere 8 years old, Hazel auditioned at the venerable Juilliard School. With the minimum entrance age of 16, one can only imagine how Alma was able to convince school administrators to let Hazel audition.

Playing Rachmaninoff’s famous Prelude in C# Minor for her audition, Hazel had to substitute sixths in place of the written ninths as her hands were just too dinky. Part way through her performance, the head of Juillard, Dr. Frank Damrosch, stormed in demanding to know who dare bastardize Rachmaninoff. To his great surprise, he was met by a little girl not even able to reach the piano pedals. Damrosch was shocked and quickly agreed with the piano professor, Oscar Wagner, that they were in the presence of a genius. They agreed to circumvent the minimum age of 16 and accepted Hazel as a private student in Wagner’s studio.

Now can you imagine what that must have been like for an 8 year old Hazel? Walking down the halls of Juillard every day, where the student body was largely over 16 years old and white, male. She must have been the only student her age, and I would venture a guess she was probably one of the few black female students in the whole school as well (if not the only). Now I don’t know about you, but I think my biggest concern when I was 8 years old was which one of my Barbie dolls had beef with the other. Here is this little girl, with a musical talent the world has rarely seen, studying at one of the most prestigious music schools in the entire world and fitting right in with a student body that on the surface couldn’t have been more different from her.

Now, just one year later on October 24, 1929, the world changed drastically when the stock market crashed, launching the U.S. into the Great Depression. Within just a few years 1 in 4 Americans would be unemployed. Alma and Margaret knew they had to do everything they could to keep the family afloat. After bouncing around between several different jobs, Alma took a leap of faith and bought a used saxophone. Female bands were on the rise in Harlem and Alma decided to put all her eggs back into her musical career basket again. Both mother and daughter practiced day in and day out on their respective instruments, honing their craft.

After several months of lessons and hard work, Alma braved the audition circuit and won a paid spot with Valaida Snow and the Berry Brothers. The group was short lived, but soon after Alma landed a regular spot with Lil Hardin Armstrong’s (wife to Louis) band. Alma’s career change proved to be quite fruitful, providing steady income for the family and opening doors to many of the jazz greats of the era. The Scott family home quickly became the gathering spot for many famous New York musicians including Art Tatum and Fats Waller.

By 1933, Alma was using her newly acquired know how of concert booking and band arranging to start landing gigs for 13 year old Hazel. Being promoted as a “child wonder”, Hazel’s first public recital was on November 24, 1933 at the beautiful Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem. Meanwhile when I was 13, I was scared shitless to be performing in my city’s Solo and Ensemble competition. What Hazel performed or who attended has been lost, but one thing’s for sure: it was the official start of her lifetime career of performing.