Ronnie’s
Oliver MurrayRonnie Scott’s Jazz Club is an institution, surviving for over six decades in London’s Soho district. Oliver Murray’s documentary, Ronnie’s, follows the man who bestowed his name on the club. Ronnie’s is a stellar piece of documentary filmmaking, using every element from archival photographs, performance footage and interviews to piece together a complete yet concise portrait of Ronnie Scott and his jazz club.
The narration of Ronnie’s comes from the documentary’s interviewees. Director Oliver Murray deliberately chose people who were close to Scott, such as his family members and frequent patrons of the club, to illustrate the jazz icon’s life. They tell stories of how Ronnie Scott fell in love with the jazz genre and how his trips to New York to witness the American jazz scene pushed him to open up his own club back in London. Scott co-founded the club with Pete King – King, the businessman, and Scott, the stardust. The love the interviewees have for the man Ronnie Scott and the club Ronnie Scott’s is so incredibly profound and matches the love Scott himself had for jazz. This love for jazz is felt deeply throughout Ronnie’s, nothing else mattered to Scott except jazz. In the 1980s, when the club was under incredible financial stress, people told Scott and King “If you’d been better businessmen, this wouldn’t have happened to you.” King responds with “If we’d been better businessmen we wouldn’t have opened a jazz club in the first place.” Murray makes it blatant that Ronnie Scott’s was never about the money, it was about an undying love for jazz.
Of course, a documentary about a jazz club needs to include stellar performances, and Oliver Murray’s documentary easily lives up to this task. With so many icons of jazz having performed at Ronnie Scott’s, Murray had a plethora of extraordinary performances to choose from. Van Morrison sings a poignant performance of “Send in the Clowns”, Ella Fitzgerald gives a comedic rendition of “The Man I Love”, and Jimi Hendrix giving his final performance at Ronnie Scott’s are all standouts of the documentary. Ronnie Scott himself also performs in archival footage littered throughout Ronnie’s; his love for jazz was not just limited to watching other artists, Scott himself was a wonderful saxophone player. One of the interesting things Murray managed to do with the documentary is choose performances that match the film’s narrative. In happier stories, there are happier performances, when sadder tales of Scott’s life are being told – such as his struggles with depression and financial strain – Murray ensures to include the more melancholy performances from Ronnie Scott’s.
Ronnie’s isn’t just a documentary made for jazz lovers, it’s made for music lovers as a monolith. Anyone with a love for music will understand how badly Ronnie Scott wanted to make his jazz club work. And despite all the struggles he succeeded, with the club remaining open for decades and surviving even after his death. Ronnie Scott’s changed the British jazz scene upon its opening, a place for jazz to thrive and morph over the years. Inviting so many American performers to Ronnie Scott’s, Scott created the opportunity for American jazz to influence British jazz, creating new music. Murray also does a great job humanizing Scott, not afraid to allow interviewees to talk about Scott and King’s struggles with the jazz club and their perseverance in making sure the club stayed open. Ronnie Scott’s remains a beacon for the jazz scene in London, with performances still happening there each night. Ronnie’s brings the viewer straight into the Ronnie Scott’s establishment, sitting on the mismatched chairs in a dimly-lit room, watching icons of jazz sing their hearts out.