Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott (* 28. January 1927 in London , † 23. December 1996 ) was a British jazz - tenor saxophonist . His name is primarily associated with one of the most renowned jazz clubs in Europe in the Soho district of London , the Ronnie’s . Scott's most famous contribution to music outside of the jazz world is his solo on the Beatles song Lady Madonna .

biography

The musician was born as Ronald Schatt in the East End of London , and his father Jock was a saxophonist in various dance bands. As a teenager, Ronald began to appear in various London clubs, for example in the band of Cab Kaye . Since the second half of the 1940s he has worked with some of the most prestigious British jazz and entertainment bands of the time (including the popular trombonist Ted Heath's big band ). Ronnie Scott, as his stage name was already back then, belonged, like Laurie Morgan, to a generation of British musicians who, from 1947, accepted engagements on the liner Queen Mary at regular intervals in order to visit New York and study the new jazz style bebop . The young Briton was deeply impressed by Charlie Parker's saxophone playing , he found it not only a formative influence on his own music, but also the motivation to make the new music known in his homeland. A first attempt to run their own jazz club, however, was unsuccessful: The attempt to provide the "hard core" of the London bebop adepts around Johnny Dankworth with their own venue with Club Eleven failed after just 18 months in the summer of 1950 .

In contrast, Scott's expertise was recognized as instrumentalist of important musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, even the white and straight European musicians over often very critical Charles Mingus admitted in 1961: " Of the white boys, Ronnie Scott gets closer to the negro blues feeling, the way Zoot Sims does . ”( From the whites, Ronnie Scott comes closer to the black blues feeling, something like Zoot Sims is the case ).

Until the 1960s, Scott was mainly active as a sideman of British bands, but from around 1965 onwards he also made a name for himself more internationally (especially as a member of the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band from 1967 to 1969) and initiated bands under his own leadership with leading musicians of the British avant-garde like John Surman , Kenny Wheeler , Ron Mathewson and Mike Carr .

Since the 1970s, Scott had to reduce his activities as a musician several times over longer periods of time because he suffered from depression , and later also from diabetes . In 1995 he finally retired from musical life. He died of heart failure at the age of 69 as a result of taking painkillers and sleeping pills in combination with alcohol that had been prescribed for him after dental treatment . He was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , where his ashes is located.

Discography

• Boppin 'at Esquire (Indigo, 1948) with Ralph Sharon
• Legacy (Ember, 1951-1958)
• Jazz Couriers! (Ember, 1957/58)
• The Night has A Thousand Eyes (Ronnie Scott's Jazz House, 1964)
• The Night Is Scott and You're So Swingable (Redial, 1965)
• When I Want Your Opinion, I'll Give it to You (Ronnie Scott's Jazz House, 1965)
• Live at Ronnie Scott’s (Columbia, 1969)
• Never Pat a Burning Dog (Ronnie Scott's Jazz House, 1990)

Fonts

• with Mike Hennessey Some of My Best Friends Are Blues London 1979 (autobiography)

literature

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Jazz: The Rough Guide . Rough Guides, London 2004, ISBN 1-85828-528-3 .
• John Fordham : Jazzman: Biography of Ronnie Scott , Kyle Cathie 1995
• John Fordham: Story of Ronnie Scott's: the Making of the Man and the Club That Bears His Name , Showtime 1999
• Charles Fox: Jazz in England . In: Jazzinstitut Darmstadt (ed.): That's Jazz. The sound of the 20th century . Exhibition catalog, Darmstadt 1988, p. 435ff.
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon . Directmedia, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89853-018-3 .

swell

1. ↑ cit. according to Kunzler, p. 1188

Web links

Commons : Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club  - collection of images, videos and audio files