Ronnie Scott’s 60-year love affair with UK’s jazz scene
David Stephenson peeks behind the doors of a club with legendary, star-studded sax appeal
LEGENDARY jazz club Ronnie Scott’s is turning 60. The Soho nightspot is celebrating its milestone with a “definitive” list of the 60 greatest jazz albums – and you don’t need to be a jazz aficionado to recognise many of the names.
They include Courtney Pine, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, George Benson, Gregory Porter and someone called Frank Sinatra.
It is a something-for-everyone accessible playlist, a word now synonymous with internet music site Spotify where you will find a treasure trove of singles drawn from the same collection.
The albums were compiled by an impressive list of luminaries from the world of music, including Georgie Fame, Courtney Pine and Pee Wee Ellis, together with broadcasters Jez Nelson from Jazz FM and BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms. At the glitzy launch last week, Ronnie Scott’s boss Simon Cooke told me: “Selecting the most significant jazz albums of the past 60 years was never going to be straightforward.
“Our 40 aficionados nominated over 800 albums which have been whittled down to a definitive list that not only reflects the jazz of the past 60 years but looks to the future too, just as we do at Ronnie Scott’s.”
Established in 1959 by saxophonists Scott and Pete King, the club opened its doors in a small basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London’s West End.
Cooke, who has been at Ronnie’s since 2008, explains: “A lot of people don’t know that Ronnie and Pete [King, the then-joint owner] were actually invited to open a club in Belgravia by the Kray Twins before they moved to this address. They managed to put them off. They were brave men in those days.”
It became the place where musicians could jam and it showcased the best of British jazz talent then introduced many top American and other international jazz artists.
Scott’s inspiration came from a 1947 trip to explore New York’s jazz scene. One night, Ronnie heard Charlie Parker play with Miles Davis at the Three Deuces. Playing next door was the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, then, late into the night, Davis played with Gillespie. Ronnie vowed to set up his own club in London.
In the summer of 1965, the club moved to 47 Frith Street where it remains to this day. Since the early days of Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie and Miles Davis, the club has presented the biggest names in jazz as well as hotly-tipped rising stars. It became the place to be seen: in the 1960s, Princess Margaret used to drop by with Peter Sellers, while Sonny Rollins asked to be locked in overnight so he could finish writing the score to the film Alfie. Over the years, all the greats have graced the stage, not least Benny Goodman, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. It would also host stars from other genres of music such as Tom Waits, Elkie Brooks and Mark Knopfler.
In the early days, Ronnie infused the club with a nice line in self-deprecation. He was famous for taking to the stage with gems like this: “You should have been at the club last Monday... somebody should have been here last Monday. We had the bouncers chucking them in.”
One jazz fan rang the club, so the story goes, to ask what time the show started: “What time can you get here?” came the reply. He even joked about the old kitchens: “A thousand flies can’t be wrong!”
RONNIE was the son of a Jewish refugee band leader while King was the son of a London bus driver. Scott admitted in his memoir that he was surprised that Ronnie Scott’s had lasted so long. “When Pete and I look back at 20 years of trial and error, of guesswork and gambling, bluff and blunder and all shades of luck, from appalling to lousy, we can only wonder at how we ever had the cheek and temerity to plunge headlong into what has been described as a sure-fire recipe for financial disaster and mental breakdown.”
Ronnie died in 1996, aged 69, from a mixture of painkillers and alcohol, but left an unrivalled legacy. Impresario Sally Greene, who also owns The Old Vic, bought the club in 2005 for £3million. She also spent £2.38million on a refurbishment. “I used to go to Ronnie’s Scott’s with my father,” she said. So she felt it was her destiny to own it one day.
Looking back, Cooke believes it was Scott and King’s personalities that gave the club its identity. “They had a love for jazz, and jazz musicians. The whole spirit of the place was based on that fantastic passion they had for the place. It wasn’t an easy ride, they went broke a couple of times, at least.
“And of course, all the celebrities then piled in... Princess Margaret, Spike Milligan, the Beatles had birthday parties here, it became the place to be. It seemed that in a non-digital world, it was able to spread itself across the globe. And it became this famous thing. “And it still attracts big names. Prince Edward was in the building last week. Rob Brydon was here a few weeks ago and sang the Welsh national anthem. We threw him out! Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck did a late-night blues session recently. It just keeps rolling. It has a life of its own.”
And may it roll on for another 60 years.
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz 60 is available on Spotify