The tunes are all good and the playing spectacular.

Red vinyl LP RSR 0003 Ronnie Scott’s Records

Freddie Gavita (Trumpet and Flugelhorn); Alex Garnett (Tenor Sax and Flute); James Pearson (Piano); Sam Burgess (Bass); Chris Higginbottom (Drums)
Recorded at The Bunker, Welwyn Garden City

Side A:
The Old Place (Alex Garnett) / Soho Wander (James Pearson) / Cookin’ (Freddie Gavita) / Haifa (Alex Garnett)

Side B:
Take Me Home (Alex Garnett) / Last Minute Waltz (James Pearson) / Miles to Go (Alex Garnett) / The Underdog (Freddie Gavita)

The original Ronnie Scott’s club opened in 1959 in a Gerrard Street basement that could just about hold a hundred people. The club moved to its present, bigger, location in Frith Street in 1965.

Ronnie and business partner Pete King had wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the New York modern jazz clubs they visited in the 1940s and 50s while serving ‘on the boats’ in Geraldo’s Navy. There is an intriguing theory, originally from Max Roach, that that atmosphere was sired by the US tax laws.

How come? The 1944 Cabaret Tax put a 20% levy on sung music plus another 20% if anyone danced. Bop was instrumental and highly undanceable, so tax-free.

There was no such silly tax in the UK (memo to all – please don’t put the idea in today’s politicians’ minds) and if I remember correctly the ‘Old Place’ did book singers like Mark Murphy. But the music was always very definitely undanceable. There was hardly enough room to walk, let alone dance. Bulky Pete King would have quickly dealt with any fun-seeking dancers.

In 1978, the club established its own record label, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz House. The first release was an album by Scott’s quintet. This is the latest, an LP also from a quintet but with modern modernists evoking the early days of the Old Place. Titled “1959” it’s a salute to the year when Mingus Ah Um, Kind of Blue, Time Out and The Shape of Jazz to Come shaped the future of jazz.

All the tracks are originals which cleverly salute the year, the Old Place and the music heard there. As far as I know none of the musicians here were anywhere born then. But the idea works. Alex Garnett’s The Old Place and Take Me Home sound as if they come from there and then. Miles to Go (also by Alex Garnett) nods to the Jazz Messengers’ Moanin’ and Freddie Gavita’s Cookin’ is an obvious tribute to Horace Silver.

I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but playing this album of cute tunes prefacing hard-edged, high energy solos flipped my mind memory back to the sight and sound of Bill Evans seemingly asleep at the keyboard, Stan Tracey making the same instrument sound completely different, Ronnie and Tubby exhausting listeners even more than themselves and multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk getting justifiably very angry when Steve Race compared him to musical clown Charlie Cairoli.

It’s not just the size of the group (there was no room on the Old Place stage for more than a small band), or the dance-hostile style of the music, or the musicians’ blinding ability, or the small room sound or the smell of odd smoke as unique as second-hand garlic on the Paris Metro. It’s just the sum of all the parts that evokes the look and feel of that rather grubby old place.

The mind-flip is helped by the fact that the disc is an LP, well-pressed in Germany from the kind of heavy vinyl the record companies used to use before they got greedy and started pressing on thin, warpish, recycled mucky plastics. Running time is around 40 minutes which is long for an LP with good solid bass, which this cut definitely has.

The sleeve is printed black on red which is very artistic but makes reading the small print blooming hard, especially for anyone old enough to remember 1959 and The Old Place.

And I have to admit that I quickly dubbed the vinyl to CD for more convenient play, with no need to clean disc and stylus, and the option to take it on a car journey.

I also have to admit that this is not the kind of music I now usually buy on disc or pay to see. But this album really grew on me, and not just for the nostalgia effect. The tunes are all good and the playing spectacular. For anyone into small group Blue Noteish music this LP will be an absolute must have.

Perhaps I am stupid but I have so far failed to find a direct and easy link to a website for Ronnie Scott’s Records with a clear list of all the recordings available and dates for new releases like this one. (I was lucky enough to be offered a copy of 1959 when I visited the club recently on other press business.) But the sleeve says RSR003 ‘1959’ is available ‘2024’ from ‘Ronnie Scott’s Records’ so I guess any specialist music store good enough to stay in business will be happy to play disc detective and order you a copy. No-one ever said that listening to bop was meant to be easy.