Hazel Scott was a pianist, actress, singer and civil rights activist born in Trinidad in 1920. Her family moved to Harlem in 1924, and at the age of four Hazel was already playing the piano. At the age of eight she became the student of Julliard music professor Paul Wagner.
By her teens she was performing in an all-girl jazz band playing piano and trumpet. Scott became quite famous playing the nightclubs all through the 1930’s and 40’s, eventually landing acting roles playing herself in several Hollywood films. By the mid 1940’s she was earning what would have been a million dollar income in today’s dollars. In 1950 Hazel Scott became the first African American to have her own television show in America, “The Hazel Scott Show”.
Scott spent her life fighting for civil rights. She refused roles in films that depicted her in racial stereotypes. She had the right, in the films in which she appeared, to wear clothes of her choosing instead of having the wardrobe department provide something she considered unacceptable. While on tour she refused to play in segregated venues. In Austin, Texas she was escorted from the city by Texas Rangers for refusing to play in a venue where Black and white audiences were separated.
Scott voluntarily appeared before the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in late 1950 and after her appearance there her TV show was cancelled. She moved to France in 1957 and did not return to the US until 1967, when the civil rights movement had fostered new housing and voting legislation.
Hazel Scott continued performing in clubs and on television, including an appearance in 1973 on the soap opera “One Life To Live”, until her death in 1981.
Don Shirley was born in 1927 and by the age of three was playing organ in church. At the age of nine he went to The Soviet Union to study at the Leningrad Conservatory of Music. He later returned to the United States and furthered his studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.
At the age of 18 Shirley debuted with the Boston Pops. The following year he performed one of his compositions with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Although Shirley was a talented pianist and composer, he was advised that the world would not accept a Black classical pianist. He invented his own genre, jazz with infusions of classical, spiritual, blues and popular music. He often recorded and performed as The Don Shirley Trio. Shirley played Carnegie Hall with Duke Ellington, who once described Shirley as being ‘simply unlimited’. He also played concerts with the Detroit Symphony, The Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and many others. Famed composer Igor Stravinski said of Shirley, “His virtuosity is worthy of the gods.”
In 1962 Shirley decided to go on a year-long tour of the segregated south. Concerned for his safety, he hired Tony ‘Lip’ Vellelonga, a bouncer at New York’s Copacabana, to drive and serve as a bodyguard. According to Tony Lip’s son, his father was surprised by the racism they encountered in the south, and it changed his view of race relations. Shirley and Tony Lip remained friends for the rest of their lives. This tour became the basis of the 2018 movie “The Green Book”, although Shirley’s family said the film was not an accurate depiction of events.
Don Shirley spent his life breaking down racial barriers through his music. He was a prolific composer, recording artist and performer, who also studied psychology and spoke 8 languages.
Don Shirley passed away in 2013 in New York City.