Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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SCOTT, Ronnie

(b Ronald Schatt, 28 Jan. '27, London; d 23 Dec. '96) Tenor sax, leader; operator with Pete King of the venerable eponymous London jazz club, said to employ bouncers to throw people in. Father was saxophonist Jack Scott; Ronnie used his stepfather's name Berger as a child. He became the youngest member of Ted Heath's band '46, then soaked up bop in NYC, working back and forth on the Queen Mary ('Geraldo's Navy': bandleader Geraldo booked the bands on the boat). The first generation of UK modern jazzmen hung out at the co-op Soho Club Eleven (raided '50 due to odour of unusual cigarillos). He formed his own combo '53, his own club '59 in Gerrard Street and moved to Frith Street late '65. A 20th- anniversary album incl. tracks by Scott quintet, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Roland Kirk, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, Kenny Clarke/Boland Big Band, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich; celebrated 25 years with club issue of two-disc set with tracks by Sims, Rich, George Coleman, Sarah Vaughan, Gil Evans, Clarke/Boland, Mike Carr and others incl. Scott's trio and a generous measure of rotten jokes (he greeted audiences with 'This is the first time I've seen dead people smoke.')

Many records on Esquire '49--55 with King, Phil Seamen, Victor Feldman, Benny Green on baritone (Green, b 9 Dec. '27, d 22 June '98, became a popular journalist and broadcaster, was working on a book about Scott when he died.) The Jazz Couriers was a quintet co-led with Tubby Hayes. Other LPs on Tempo, Philips, Fontana, RCA, CBS, with Stan Tracey etc; he also played in the Clarke/Boland band. The quintet in the '80s incl. Dick Pearce on flugelhorn, John Critchinson on piano, Ron Mathewson on bass, Martin Drew on drums; Never Pat A Burning Dog '92 was on Ronnie Scott's Jazz House label; When I Want Your Opinion I'll Give It To You '97 was a good compilation with some comedy. Unduly modest about his own playing, his favourites among his own recordings were those with Clarke/Boland. Biography Let's All Join Hands And Contact The Living '85 by John Fordham was updated and reissued mid-'90s with a new title.