My Homage to Hazel Scott and Roberta Flack
On this day when Black History Month morphs into Women's Herstory Month, I am compelled to mention and praise the new documentary on the life of pianist and actor Hazel Scott titled The Disappearance of Miss Scott . Hazel Scott was an extremely talented pianist who made her career by "swinging the classics" as it was called back them. Born in 1920 in Trinidad, Hazel and her mother came to New York City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance when she was four years old. Four years later, she was enrolled to study piano at Juilliard. After being heard in several radio broadcasts, she was engaged to star at Café Society after her friend Billie Holiday secured the gig for her. Soon Hollywood came calling and she was cast "as herself" in five films. During the filming of her final film, The Heat's On (1943), Scott demanded that the black women who were dancing in the scene when she was at the piano wear costumes that were more dignified than the ones that the...