Ronnie Scott tells here of his life as a musician and bandleader and as the founder, with his partner Peter King, of the great jazz club which bears his name.
Ronnie said of running their world famous venue, "It’s made a happy man very old." The book provides a humorous and shrewd behind- the-scenes account of the headaches and hysteria of running a club in the heart of London’s Soho and coping with the capricious temperaments of some of the world’s most celebrated artists. Some of My Best Friends Are Blues includes contributions by Benny Green and Spike Milligan, with cartoons by Mel Calman. This edition features a foreword by the late Pete King. Ronnie Scott died in 1996 but the Club survives as a testament to their vision and determination.
Contents:
Preface by Pete King.
5 Four Bars in . . . by Benny Green.
First Set: Who’s earning a living?
Second Set: My son, the musician.
Third Set: Geraldo’s navy.
Fourth Set: The joints were jumping.
Fifth Set: My chef, the gorilla.
Sixth Set: Zoot alors!
Seventh Set: So far, Soho good.
Eighth Set: Bill and Ben.
Ninth Set: Miles gets the brush.
Tenth Set: The old routine.
Coda: All that Jewish jazz by Spike Milligan.
"In the train journey sense, it’s a Good Read. However, beyond all the anecdotes and the wonderful lines. . . and the hints of Ronnie’s East End childhood, there’s something deeper. It took Ronnie Scott’s account of his early struggles to make me see one of the fundamental differences between jazz musicians and the rest." Peter Clayton, The Sunday Telegraph
"With its array of outsize characters and crisp anecdotes the book is genuinely entertaining, even for non-jazz buffs."
Kevin Henriques, Financial Times
"An enthralling book about a memorable character."
Jim Godbolt, Jazz at Ronnie Scott’s
"One of the best books about jazz, and its characters, ever written."
Music Week
"I laughed a lot."
Brian Case, Melody Maker
Co-author Mike Hennessey is a leading jazz writer. He covered the inernational music scene for Billboard magazine for 27 years and has written hundreds of articles, reviews, album notes and biographical features for a wide range of jazz magazines. He is also the author of The Little Giant: The Story of Johnny Griffin (Northway, 2008), an acclaimed biography of drummer Kenny Clarke and Tin Pan Alley, a book about the British music business.