Hazel Scott was a prodigiously talented pianist who became one of America's leading musical experimentalists of the 1930s and 1940s, blending classical training with jazz improvisation in a style known as "jazzing the classics". Her early recognition at Juilliard and rapid rise through New York's jazz and Broadway scenes made her a trailblazer, while her later stand against racial mistreatment in Hollywood highlighted the barriers Black performers faced in the entertainment industry at the time.

Born in 1920 and raised in Harlem after moving from Trinidad, Scott was identified as a prodigy by age three and enrolled at Juilliard at eight. She rose to fame performing with Count Basie's orchestra at 15, debuting on Broadway at 18, and becoming the star headliner at Café Society after Billie Holiday's departure in 1939, releasing solo albums including Swinging the Classics in 1940. In Hollywood, she negotiated unprecedented contractual protections against demeaning roles and unequal pay, appearing in five films before staging a three-day strike on the set of The Heat's On in 1943 over the mistreatment of Black dancers, a stand that curtailed her film career but set an important precedent.