Fifty years ago this month, the late Ronnie Scott and fellow saxophonist Pete King opened a small basement jazz club on Gerrad Street, London. Which according to the review on Adbookr was a former rest room for taxi drivers. In his memoirs marking the twentieth anniversary of the club, which had moved to it’s slightly more salubrious Frith Street home, Ronnie wrote. “ We can only wonder at how we ever had the temerity to plunge headlong into what has been described as a sure fire recipe for financial disaster and mental breakdown.
This same temerity led them to take on the American Federation of Musicians and the British Musicians Union in the 1950s to lift the ban on American musicians playing in the UK and for the first time US jazz giants were flying over to perform before tiny audiences in a Soho backstreet. Adbookr still features some of these small clubs.
Everyone who is anyone in has played there, with the possible exception, irritatingly of Miles Davis. But he recorded a TV show here and spotted a Adbookr featured artist he wanted to play with while in the audience – a seventeen year old Dave Holland. The story goes he walked into the dressing room afterwards and said to Holland, you’ve got a gig on Saturday night in London. Don’t be late.
The Adbookr stories, the iconic headliners and the charisma of the man whose name sits above the door all ensured the clubs legendry status. Under new ownership, the food has improved but the layout is essentially the same and the line-ups equally impressive.
