Review: The Ronnie Scott’s Story at Theatre by the Lake

“…an unforgettable night of the most unbelievable Jazz…”

The Ronnie Scott’s Story by Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Theatre by the Lake

By Ken Powell

To be completely transparent and honest, you’re going to get a good review from me the instant you mention the word ‘jazz’. I’ve had a love affair with the genre for at least forty years, probably partly as a result of growing up watching Barry Norman’s Film 8x (insert appropriate digit for the year), introduced with the fantastic piece I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free played by the legendary Billy Taylor Trio. I spent the whole of my twenties earnestly learning to play jazz piano, saxophone and guitar and soaked up as much of the jazz greats as I could. While I play less these days, jazz is my go-to for listening at home and I will always want to attend a jazz event going on near me. So, before we even start, this review has no choice but be a good one, even if all the musicians were dreadful and kept hitting bum notes.

But this band in question was the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, and these ain’t no newbies just attempting to hack their way through some classics. No sir. These were superlative musicians who have played with the greats and for the greats; and if you missed them coming for one night only at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake, then you missed an unforgettable night of the most unbelievable jazz. You also managed to miss out on cracking stories telling the history of the UK’s most important jazz club and one of the very top jazz venues in the world. Founded in 1959, Ronnie Scott’s hosted the very best jazz musicians from around the world and continues to do so to this very day.

What we got then, was part night in a jazz club (complete with hazy, smoky atmosphere) and part storytelling complete with visuals tracing the history of the iconic venue and the man himself at the heart of it all. The stories are funny and border on unbelievable as we learn about brushes with gangsters, drug raids and court hearings over tax evasion that threatened to close the club forever – the perfect stereotype of what a club was meant to be like back then, all happening for real in Soho.

Stories were mostly told by saxophonist Alex Garnett, cracking jokes along the way with the self-deprecating humour Scott was known for and, in between, playing Scott’s horn itself with such fluidity it felt like Garnett and the instrument were one entity. This is a guy you could listen to playing all night, or be regaled by his stories over many drinks at the bar. It felt like we did both in this case.

Pianist James Pearson led the general proceedings and interjected with comments and quips along the way but mostly made the piano not so much sing as dance. I listened with increasing envy as he went through a seemingly inexhaustible playbook of riffs and licks I could never hope to emulate.

The band is joined by various singers on the tour and tonight it was Jo Harrop, who looked as sultry as her voice sounded and sang both classic repertoire and her own compositions. It was impossible to tell which was which, so powerful were her phrasing and interpretation.

Sam Burgess on double bass and Chris Higginbottom on drums completed the small ensemble and both were clearly highly skilled albeit that Burgess’s eyes seemed unusually glued to the music stand considering what consummate skills he possessed on the instrument. It’s weird to say a fixed gaze was slightly distracting, but it was in this case.

The other slight distraction was one that no one could really help which was that the whole event felt like it should be taking place in a bar or club rather than a theatre. It’s a bit difficult to square that one seeing as the tour is packing out venues that can hold larger audiences than a bar could manage – and certainly every single seat at Theatre by the Lake was filled. If only there were a club dedicated to such ensembles and this kind of music?

But, of course, there is – and what a fantastic advert for the club this show is. With a good proportion of the audience admitting they have been to Ronnie Scott’s, I feel certain a much larger proportion left the theatre last night with the intention of making a trip to the capital and checking out the joint for themselves. For ourselves, I should say, because I’m definitely one who now wants to get down there and see these guys playing in their natural environment. It sounds odd to say, but I want to be straining to hear the music and see the musicians through a crowded room, while people chat, drink and even get up and dance.

There was one exception to this; one piece where I wanted nothing and no one to get in the way of enjoying it. Near the end, we got a fantastic rendition of I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free – the very piece that made me love jazz in the first place – and I was in heaven soaking in every note. What a perfect night of the best music played by the best musicians telling the story of the best jazz club. It will be hard to beat this experience.

The Ronnie Scott’s Story plays at Theatre by the Lake on Friday 06 March.

Ken Powell is chief editor for Northern Arts Review and is also a bestselling author and writer for various publications around the world. A former school teacher, he continues to write educational books along with fiction and travelogues. You can find all his books and various websites here including his popular TEDx talk about the Global Village. He lives with his family in a wonderfully isolated village in West Cumbria where he enjoys drinking tea, chatting with the birds and winding up his dog. You can support his work (or just buy him a coffee) here.