The legendary UK music venue that hosted Amy Winehouse and Jimi Hendrix | Music | Entertainment | EUROtoday

While jazz has usually, unfairly, been the butt of jokes by comedians who mock a few of its extra avant-garde features and the studied seriousness of a small proportion of its followers, there’s no pseudo-intellectual chin-stroking occurring at Ronnie Scott’s.

The temper is lighthearted and welcoming, with most of the viewers right here for the primary time, possessing no information of jazz in any respect.

On the night time of my go to, I spot guests from as distant as Japan, West Africa and Australia having fun with the present sitting on the bar or consuming at tables that are organized going through the stage. There’s no costume code to talk of, though some select to “glam up” for dinner, and the meals has improved immensely because the days when Scott used to quip about it onstage.

“A thousand flies can’t be wrong!” was certainly one of his oft-used strains. The meals was by no means that unhealthy however Scott’s self-deprecating humour was legendary. “You should have been here last week,” was one other outdated favorite. “Somebody should have been here last week… we had the bouncers chuckingthem in!”

There’s no want for strong-arm ways to get the punters in at present, not that there ever actually was. An eclectic programme of internationally celebrated musical acts means Ronnie’s is normally booked up nicely prematurely. Nigel Kennedy, the bestselling classical violinist who can also be a extremely profitable jazz musician, is likely one of the many artists who maintain returning to play at Ronnie’s, drawn there by its inimitable atmosphere.

He says: “There is nowhere like Ronnie Scott’s. My first experience of Ronnie’s was as a 13-year-old after a performance of a Bruch violin concerto for the BBC. The original plan was that the BBC should ferry me back to the Yehudi Menuhin School but I had a far less boring idea and somehow managed to persuade them to arrange a seat in Ronnie Scott’s and get me taken there instead.

“Dizzy Gillespie was playing superlatively that night and at some point in the second set, Ella Fitzgerald got up onstage and scatted for a couple of numbers. A typically unique and inspired moment known as ‘s*** happening’ at Ronnie Scott’s.

“A couple of months later, I was back again, having been invited by Stéphane Grappelli to play with him. Not bad for a 13-year-old: a Ronnie Scott’s debut with the Grand Master of the violin. As a listener, evenings at Ronnie Scott’s have been equally memorable, hearing such legends as Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Elvin Jones, Lee Konitz, Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich, Yusef Lateef, Jeff Beck… the list goes on.”

It’s an early autumn night in Soho, the place locals and guests alike are pouring into this buzzy nook of the West End searching for leisure. As nightfall settles, a queue begins to kind, comprising individuals of all ages and backgrounds, exterior an nameless wanting black-fronted constructing on Frith Street.

Stylish but unpretentious, solely a small neon signal and delicate lettering above the doorway reveal its id. Yet this modest-seeming institution, which final month celebrated its sixty fifth birthday, is likely one of the most well-known and revered music venues on the earth.

Founded in 1959 by two East End jazz musicians, Ronnie Scott’s has performed host to a few of the largest names in showbusiness. It’s the form of place you’ve most likely heard of, even for those who’ve by no means set foot in London.

And it’s not simply jazz musicians that love taking part in right here. Everyone from Amy Winehouse and Jimi Hendrix to Prince, Lady Gaga and Chaka Khan, have taken to its stage.

Fans make pilgrimages right here from each nook of the world to take their seats within the intimate 220-seat auditorium, amongst regulars reminiscent of Elton John, Kate Moss and the Rolling Stones. Princesses Margaret and Diana had been each guests to the membership of their day – with the latter as soon as noticed right here on a date with coronary heart surgeon, and jazz fanatic, Hasnat Khan.

Ronald Scott (born in 1927 with the Jewish surname Schatt) was a tenor saxophonist who had been taking part in jazz golf equipment since age 16. As Graham Marsh writes in his definitive information to the membership’s early days – Ronnie Scott’s 1959-1969 with pictures by Freddy Warren – he “was obsessed with America… The culture and the multitude of mythical world-famous jazz clubs in New York City were, for Scott, the holy grailof hip”.

In the Fifties, nonetheless, younger British jazz followers had been unable to get their fill of this US-originated artwork kind. The British Musicians’ Union positioned heavy restrictions on international artists taking part in reside music right here and gramophone information, which had been manufactured from shellac, had been prohibitively costly.

So Scott, along with good friend and fellow musician Pete King, joined the dance band of Cunard’s transatlantic cruise ship, the Queen Mary, aboard which they performed their method throughout the pond.

It was in New York, as they soaked up their favorite “bebop” music first-hand in golf equipment such because the Village Vanguard, that the thought took form of beginning a membership of their very own again in London.

On their return, the duo borrowed £1,000 from Scott’s stepfather to open Ronnie’s in its unique location: the basement of what’s now a Taiwanese restaurant on Gerrard Street in Chinatown (a blue plaque exterior marks the spot the place the “Old Place”, as it’s reverently recognized, as soon as stood). The membership opened on Friday, October 30, 1959,with Tubby Hayes and his Quartet itsfirst reserving.

A gentle stream of British jazz expertise continued to pour via the doorways and on to the stage, with the end result that, by 1966, Scott and King had been searching for bigger premises – which they present in close by Frith Street.

By now, the enterprising pair had negotiated with British and American unions to permit an change of musicians to play in one another’s international locations.

Ronnie Scott’s was consequently the primary ever venue to function a US jazzman (Zoot Sims) in a British membership. The giants of American jazz adopted, together with Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone, taking the membership into the realms of musical historical past.

Scott himself died in 1996 and, nowadays, Ronnie’s is owned by Sally Greene and Michael Watt, who bought the membership from Pete King in 2005.

They have simply applied a significant refurbishment in time for its sixty fifth birthday: acoustics and lighting have been improved and most of the furnishings up to date, while fastidiously preserving the enduring appeal and integrity of Scott and King’s creation.

In the function of reserving acts and introducing them on stage is London jazz doyen Paul Pace, who’s labored at Ronnie’s for 15 years.

“Ronnie’s is a special place; we’re the caretakers of a fantastic legacy,” he tells the Daily Express while overseeing preparations for the night time’s present – that includes Nick Walters, a London-based trumpeter, composer and bandleader who is likely one of the stars of the flourishing trendy UK jazz scene. Paul clearly feels and respects the burden of duty for Ronnie’s heritage.

“You’re aware of that legacy, of who has played here. So the acts we’re booking have to be of a world-class standard. That’s foremost in your mind,” he says.

Ruby Turner is one other common. The chart-topping British-Jamaican soul singer has recorded with Bryan Ferry, Steve Winwood and Mick Jagger. She additionally excursions and seems on tv with Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

Speaking from her house within the Midlands, she tells the Express: “I’ve been playing Ronnie’s since the 1980s, doing residencies, and I knew Ronnie and Pete. We used to have the best time. It’s a wonderfully iconic venue, incredibly special, and I feel honoured to still play it.

“For a time, there was also a Ronnie Scott’s in Broad Street in Birmingham, which was great as it was just down the road from me,” she provides, referring to the “branch” that operated on a franchise foundation within the UK’s second metropolis through the Nineteen Nineties.

Though profitable in its time – a then-unknown band known as Coldplay even performed there as soon as – Ronnie’s in Birmingham closed within the early 2000s.

“It turned into a lap dancing club, so that was the end of that gig,” Ruby laughs. “I could never get round those poles!”

But the Frith Street membership continues to go from power to power, regardless of robust working circumstances for reside music venues, particularly in Soho the place many historic venues, such because the Marquee Club not far away, the place Ruby additionally performed, have been compelled to shut.

As Nick will get able to go on stage in entrance of a packed viewers, I ask him whether or not he, like music programmer and legacy supervisor Paul, feels the stress of the membership’s legendary historical past bearing down on him.

He tells me he does, despite the fact that he has carried out right here possibly 20 occasions earlier than: “It’s hard not to. As soon as you walk in your eyes are drawn to the pictures of all these musical legends on the walls around the club – these people who are your idols.

“The walls are full of them. These are the people whose footsteps you’re in. Everyone who plays here, whether they’re famous or it’s their first time, just gawps at the walls.”

Ronnie Scott’s 1959-1969: Photographs by Freddy Warren, with Graham Marsh and Simon Whittle, is revealed by reelartpress.com. For bookings, go to ronniescotts.co.uk.