A child prodigy on the piano, then a glamorous jazz and popular music entertainer, a civil rights campaigner and the first black American woman to host her own TV show: for the first three decades of her life, Hazel Scott’s rise to fame was vertiginous. Born in Trinidad in 1920, Scott was the headliner in some of New York’s most fashionable clubs by the time she was twenty. A couple of years later she became one of Hollywood’s highest paid entertainers and then married one of the most high-profile US Congressmen of her day. Their celebrity lifestyle regularly featured on newspaper front pages, Scott’s records were selling well and her syndicated TV show was given double airtime because it was so popular. And then, almost overnight, she vanished from public view. What happened? That's one of the questions Rajan Datar discusses with Scott's biographer and actor Karen Chilton; Loren Schoenberg, saxophonist, bandleader and Senior Scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem; and playwright, lyricist and broadcaster Murray Horwitz. (Image: Hazel Scott in the 1950s. Credit: Archive Photos/Getty Images)
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The distinct musical genre of amapiano can be heard in clubs and parties all around the world.
It's a sound born out of the unique cultural identity of South Africa.
I am Legendary Chris and I'm going to take you on a journey of exploration as we dive into the history of the music.
Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
If you like piano music, you might recognize this, one of the best known waltzes by the Polish composer Friedrich Chopin, often called the Minute Waltz.
But as you can hear, the female performer who recorded this turned Chopin Waltz into a jazzy number, something she became celebrated for, in fact.
In the 1940s, Hazel Scott was one of the hottest new arrivals on the New York music scene.
And she soon became much more than just a gifted pianist.
She was also a fierce and pioneering campaigner for civil rights.
A glamorous Hollywood actor for a time was married to one of the most high profile U.S.
congressmen of her day and appeared regularly on newspaper front pages.
So what happened?
Why in the latter part of the 20th century did Hazel Scott slide into obscurity?
That's one of the questions I'll be asking my three expert guests in this edition of the Forum.
From the BBC World Service, I'm Rajan Dattar and I'm joined by Scott's biographer and actor, Karen Chilton in New York, Lauren Schoenberg, saxophonist, bandleader and senior scholar of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, also in New York, and playwright, lyricist and broadcaster Murray Horwitz in Maryland.
Welcome to you all.
We're going to start tracing the career of Hazel Scott in just a moment.
But first I want to ask all three of you, if you were to sum up Hazel's personality in just one sentence, what would that be?