Documentary: Ronnie Scott's

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Maybe you've visited Ronnie Scott's on vacation in London. If you're a musician, maybe you've played there. Or you probably have albums that were recorded live there. Whatever your relationship with the fabled club, odds are you know virtually nothing about its history. That ends today.

Here's a terrific BBC documentary on the jazz establishment—co-founded by tenor saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Peter King. The documentary features rare performance footage of Ella Fitzgerald, Zoot Sims, Sonny Stitt, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Buddy Rich, Ben Webster and side of Mel Brooks you've never seen before. And be sure to catch King's fast aside at 21:24—"Two and six, all night." [Pictured above, from left: the late Peter King and Ronnie Scott]

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Documentary celebrating the founding of Ronnie Scott's Jazz club in 1959. Scott, a rising young saxophone player, opened a club where he and his friends could play the music they liked. Over the following years, the club had its ups and downs, reflecting the changes in attitudes to jazz and the social life of surrounding Soho.

Now Ronnie Scott's is known throughout the world as the hearbeat of British jazz. In this tribute, Omnibus talks to some of Ronnie's greatest admirers including Mel Brooks, the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke MP and writer Alan Plater, and features rare archive footage of some of the club's historic performances by Zoot Sims, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.