![]() He was told about a suitable basement room in Gerrard Street. His well-known quips – “why don’t you all hold hands and see if you can contact the living” – somehow remained funny no matter how many times you had heard them.ĭuring a visit to New York in the late 1950s, Scott saw the potential for a late-night jazz club in Soho. He would vary his comebacks, with other rejoinders such as, “If I could afford the wood, sir, I’d have your mouth boarded up”. Scott was a true one-off. ![]() “I see you’re drinking on an empty head again sir,” was one regular put-down. Scott was skilled at dealing with rowdy hecklers. Pretend you’re on the Titanic,” he would tell the audience. “We want you to enjoy yourselves, so eat, drink and be merry. George Melly, Tom Waits and Nina Simone are just three artists who’ve shocked audiences there with their wild antics.Īt the centre of all this, for decades, was Scott himself, a Jewish musician from London’s East End, who possessed the droll wit and timing of a stand-up comedian. It has been the scene of mesmerising performances, and has also had its fair share of wild behaviour, outlandish humour and drunken recording sessions. The club has hosted some of the greatest jazz stars of the past six decades in its once smoke-filled, dingy nightclub setting. “Ronnie’s” is how it was always known to musicians. In 2020, like many live venues, it has been hit by the Covid pandemic, but it’s gamely battling on – and today a documentary, Ronnie’s, arrives in cinemas, celebrating the history of this British institution. ![]() Last year it celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Van Morrison, Kurt Elling, Imelda May, Georgie Fame and Madeline Bell. Scott, an outstanding tenor saxophone player, died in 1996, but his club, which started in a small basement at 39 Gerrard Street, lives on, now refurbished, in Frith Street. Ronnie Scott would regularly tell the same joke about his famous jazz club in the heart of Soho: “It’s just like home – filthy and full of strangers”.
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