Hazel Scott was a pioneering jazz pianist and singer, about whom we hear far too little. She is perhaps best-known for her jazz interpretations of classical pieces by Bach, Chopin, Liszt and others (her version of De Falla’s ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ is a jaw-dropper), but was also a noted composer and fine vocalist with a sophisticated (and often pleasingly elliptical) approach to the Great American Songbook; such were her gifts that she was able to attract sidemen of the calibre of Mingus and Roach.

The Trinidad-born, New York-raised Scott was a true prodigy – she took up keyboards aged just three – and won scholarships to study at the Juilliard School when she was eight; she also performed at the Café Society club in Greenwich Village while still at school.

In 1950, she became the first black American to host her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show (sadly, all episodes of this well-received series, which featured Mingus and Roach in her backing band, are now lost). However, the show was cancelled and her career faltered after she testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950 during the McCarthy era. She subsequently moved to Paris in 1957 and began performing in Europe (where she was hailed as a heroine for her principles and activism), not returning to the US until 1967.

Charting her work between 1939 and 1957, this superb-value, well-annotated 69-track collection brings together a significant proportion of her recordings during the primary era of her career and offers a cross-section of her output for the Bluebird, Decca, V-Disc, Signature, Columbia, Capitol and Debut labels. It includes selections from her albums Swinging The Classics, A Piano Recital, Great Scott, Grand Jazz, Relaxed Piano Moods and Round Midnight. A substantial showcase for, and ideal introduction to, a talented, under-documented artist who deserves more attention, and thus unreservedly recommended.