What do you think of the Black history lessons in the PBS documentary about jazz pianist-singer Hazel Scott?
Last Updated: 20.06.2025 00:27
(2008 = hardcover)
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Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Café Society to Hollywood to HUAC
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(2018)
Reviewers praise the director for covering the life and career of an artist who had been almost forgotten.
This distinction belongs to the African American singer and actress Ethel Waters (1896-1977) who hosted a television show about herself before World War II.
By Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
** Marcia Chatelain – an author
19 February 2025
Hazel was not only a talented pianist, a singer and an actress. She was also an outspoken person, but America was not to accept an artist who was opposed to racial segregation.
Hazel Scott: The Disappearance of Miss Scott is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2025. It is an episode of the long-running program American Masters. This film is about the life and career of the African American musician Hazel Scott (1920-1981)
Several persons are interviewed in the film
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** Ashley Khan – a music historian
** Dwayne Mack – Professor of History, Berea College
Chicago Tribune
** Murray Horwitz – a playwright
In 1967, when she returned to the US, she found that the country had changed in several ways while she had been away. A civil rights movement was active, but it was not easy for her to connect with this movement, because it operated in ways which were strange for her.
** Karen Chilton – author of a biography about Hazel Scott
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The topic is important. The story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
In the beginning, things were going well. Hazel and Adam were a famous couple in the African American community. Later, things were not going so well. First, they separated. In 1960, they divorced.
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** Tracie Thoms – an actress
In the US, she became a famous pianist and singer. She was strongly opposed to racial discrimination and racial segregation.
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She performed occasionally in a night club and she had small roles on some television shows, but she was not able to rebuild her career.
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She had been a popular artist in the US during the 1930s. During World War II, she and actress Lena Horne had performed for American troops abroad who were stationed with great success. But when the war was over, things began to change.
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** Director and producer: Nicole London
Life was easier for her in France, because there was no racial segregation there. She found that the French public appreciated her more than the American public did.
Her life and her career
** Adam Clayton Powell III – a journalist – he is the son of Hazel Scott and Adam Clayton Power, Jr.
** Carole Stabile – Professor, University of Maryland
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The cast
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Monica O’Donnell – author of dissertation about Hazel Scott
** Lauren Schoenberg – a musician, a saxophonist
“Hazel Scott, a trailblazing entertainer and activist, was silenced. A PBS doc brings her to light,”
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** Run time: 83 minutes
This film shows her talents as a musician, a singer and an actress. It also reveals the price she had to pay for speaking out. She was silenced so much that she was almost forgotten by the general public.
In 1950, Hazel was listed in a pamphlet with the title Red Channels. This pamphlet named more than one hundred persons who were accused of being communists. Hazel was included, because she was opposed to racial discrimination and racial segregation.
Joe Bendel
** Farah Jasmine Griffin – Professor of English, Columbia University
Wall Street Journal
She conducted a one-woman crusade for civil rights. She paid a high price when she insisted on her right to speak out and say what she believed.
Hazel was a civil rights activist before there was an organized movement. She was almost on her own.
The Hazel Scott Show ran for three months in 1950. But Hazel is not the first African American woman to host a television show about herself.
Ethel Waters is not mentioned in Nicole London’s documentary film about Miss Scott.
Hazel was a talented pianist. She played jazz and classical music. She was a singer and an actress. She was a civil rights activist.
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She was married to the African American Baptist pastor and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They were married in 1945.
Her contract included a passage which stated that she was not going to perform in front of a segregated audience. This passage was important to her. If the organizers were not prepared to obey this passage, she refused to play.
** Michael Eric Dyson – an author
It was never the same as it had been before and during World War II. When she died in 1981, she was almost forgotten by the general public.
The Disappearance of Miss Scott
Some people decided she had to be taught a lesson. She was blacklisted and vilified so much and so hard that she felt she had to leave the country.
** Amanda Seales – an actress
She was born in Port of Spain in Trinidad. In 1924, when she was four years old, she moved with her mother and grandmother to New York City.
** Subtitles: English
Reviews and ratings
** Camille Thurman – a jazz musician
By Karen Chilton
Listed in alphabetical order
This film covers the life and work of Hazel Scott in great detail. It covers the life of the African American musician from the beginning in 1920 until the end in 1981.
On IMDb it has a rating of 79 percent
** Language: English
In 1950, the US was in the middle of the Second Red Scare. Senator McCarthy was beginning his persecution of people who were suspected of being Communists.
(2010 = paperback)
** Mark Cantor – director of the Celluloid Archive
“American Masters: The Disappearance of Miss Scott,”
Since she was accused of being a communist, it was at first difficult and later impossible for Hazel to work as a musician in the US.
** Gretchen Sullivan Sorin – an author
In the 1950s, she felt she was being pushed out of her own country. She moved to France. She disappeared from the US. Hence the subtitle of this film:
Hazel was the first African American woman to have her own television show which ran on a weekly basis. But her show did not last long.
“American Masters brings jazz giant Hazel Scott out of the shadows,”
20 February 2025
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By Stephen R. Duncan
John Anderson
Los Angeles Times
Hazel and Adam had a son who was born in 1946. The child, who was named Adam Clayton Powell III, appears in this film. He is one of the many persons who are interviewed here.
When she returned in 1967, she did not really feel welcome. Many members of the civil rights movement regarded her as someone who was out of touch with the current situation.
J. B. Spins
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Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads.
PS. Hazel is often described as the first African American woman to host a television show which aired on a weekly basis. This description is true.
Here are the names of the participants
** Jason Moren – a jazz musician
Rick Kogan
The first episode aired on 03 July 1950. When she was named as a communist in the pamphlet, her show was cancelled. The DuMont Television Network said they could no longer find a sponsor for her show. The last episode aired on 29 September 1950
Jevon Phillips
What do reviewers say about this film?
“The Disappearance of Miss Scott: A Virtuoso Revealed on PBS,”
Her show aired on NBC on 14 June 1939. But there was only one episode. Her show did not run on a weekly basis. In addition, not many people had a television set in 1939. Not many people were able to watch this show.
In this situation, she decided to go to France for a while. She went there several times in the following years. In 1957, she decided to stay there on a permanent basis.
** Tammy L. Khernodle – a musicologist
21 February 2025
** Excerpts from Hazel Scott’s unpublished memoirs are read by Sheryl Lee Ralph