Hazel Scott on 2 grand pianos

[gvopedz]

Check it out:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-grammys-hazel-scott-alicia-keys-20190210-story.html

 

[Big Beat Steve]

11 hours ago, gvopedz said:

Check it out

 

Done.

Quite a while ago:

I had been aware of her through her presence on a couple of compilations and had owned the 10" of Swingin The Classics for a long time but when I bought a fairly huge collection of 78s in 2005 these 4 Scott albums for some reason were included among the handful of 78 rpm albums. As if the previous owner had had a particular preference for her. A nice addition ...

I remember what I read about her in various publications seemed to treat her a bit lightly (including by historians), claiming her to be rather commercial, cocktail-ish, flashy etc. Not that she could be rated the female Art Tatum but I find that a bit unfair and maybe another case of a hindsight-ish perspective ignoring her importance and appeal at the time and, above all, in the context of her times.

I'd certainly file her with Hadda Brooks, Camille Howard, Mabel Scott and the like.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

15 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

I remember what I read about her in various publications seemed to treat her a bit lightly (including by historians), claiming her to be rather commercial, cocktail-ish, flashy etc.

That's just silly.  Let's be honest:  ALL JAZZ is cocktail-ish, because it is best to listen to while you're having cocktails.  Why would you want to listen to anything else? 

[Brad]

I had an album of hers, Round Midnight, and it seemed like jazz lite to me. Pleasant sounding enough but not something I’d care to listen to again. 

[JSngry]

 

[Chuck Nessa]

Don't forget this one

[Big Beat Steve]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

I wasn't quite aware Hazel Scott was THAT outspoken in civil rights matters and had more guts than many "name" jazz artists taken together, so hats off to her. Now if it takes Alicia Keys to "get her name out in the open" again bring her some posthumous recognition then that's not the worst thing to happen.

@TTK: I seee what you mean and largely agree. If some listeners prefer stuff that's more complex or on a different level, why not ... tastes do differ and not everything can appeal to everyone in the same manner. What I do find a bit of a pity, however, is the tendency of some scribes (particularly those who "came after the fact") to be either unable or just unwilling to cover those adequately who were fairly "accessible" to the audience and dismiss them as "artistically" insufficient instead when they just provided entertainment instead of "challenging" their listeners (which at the time often translated as "alienating"). As if jazz had ever consisted of "high art" only. It was a much wider field and there was room for a lot of different strains of jazz, and competent historians ought to be willing to take in the whole picture and refrain from rewriting history from an ivory-tower perspective that sometimes reads like some "how we would have liked history to turn out", unfortunately. And if some historians feel that this demand would relegate them to too much of a "documentarian" role, then so be it. This is not what was meant.

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[AllenLowe]

are we arguing about whether or not she was a good pianist? She certainly knew how to play the piano, but creatively she was pretty much on the same level as Liberace, Ferrante and Teicher, et cal - 

Edited February 12, 2019 by AllenLowe

[Big Beat Steve]

I'd certainly consider her a bit more than that for her "jazzing the classics" but apart from those who'd see only gimmickry in this (I wouldn't ... different strokes ... ) I can very well imagine this was anathema to "third stream" adulators of the day (some of whom would probably have found her treatment almost blasphemous - I wonder if she would also have had Grieg's heirs breathe down her neck if she had done an Anitra's Dance Boogie like Charlie Norman did around the time she had her McCarthy hearings ... )

Edited February 12, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Gheorghe]

On ‎12‎.‎02‎.‎2019 at 3:39 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

Don't forget this one

Wow, didn´t know she also recorded for Debut. If you hear about Debut today, it´s mostly about Mingus´ own dates and a few others like Thad Jones, Paul Bley, Miles Davis Blue Moods.

I think Hazel Scott lived in Paris for some time in the early 60´s. I think there is one short take of "Spring is Here" recorded in her appartment, where Bud Powell sit´s in, somehow they both play Spring is Here ...

[sidewinder]

I have a copy of the Hazel Scott 10” Debut LP. Always liked the cover - on the back there is some ‘sample copy’ scribbling by presumably Celia or Mingus?

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

lets fight about something...........no wait i agree with you!!!!!!!  i saw a "prog" meme and its all if u think the grammys was ballz what about: and it listed rick and keith etc- but it was totally misinformed as the alicia keys spot was a tribute to hazel scott and her famous film!

[JSngry]

That's Hazel doing the instigating on Blakey's "Moaning'", the live one from Paris that burns down the cornfield.

[ghost of miles]

Appears that her early 1950s Coral and Capitol (Hazel Scott's Late Show) sides have never been reissued on CD.  If anybody has a lead on these tracks in any form, could you PM me?  

Edited October 12, 2020 by ghost of miles