Ronnie Scott; Saxophonist, Jazz Club Owner

Ronnie Scott, a renowned tenor saxophonist whose London jazz club played host to most of the greatest names in jazz, has died at his London home. He was 69.

Friends said Scott collapsed and died Monday. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Scott’s passion for the saxophone mirrored that of his father, who was a sax player in Jack Hylton’s band, one of London’s leading dance bands before World War II.

Ronnie Scott left school at the age of 15 and played with musicians around London whenever they let him. In 1944, he joined the Johnny Claes band before going on to play with Ted Heath, Bert Ambrose and other popular dance band leaders.

Scott formed his own band in 1953 and toured in Europe and the United States, where he fell in love with jazz.

In 1959, he decided to open a jazz club on Gerrard Street in London’s Soho district. Over the years, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon and even rocker Jimi Hendrix played in the club that became known for its red vinyl-padded bar, whitewashed walls and gingham covered tables.

Scott often introduced acts with a teasing line to customers: “Quiet please. You’re not here to enjoy yourselves.”

The club, which moved to Firth Street in the Soho in 1968, was dubbed the birthplace of the British jazz scene, a distinction that the self-effacing Scott took in stride.

“I don’t think I’m much of a businessman,” he recently told a radio interviewer. “I’m a musician. If there’s any winning formula, it’s because we present the best jazz in the world, it’s comfortable and not overly expensive. Because I’m a musician, I know what musicians require.”

Leonard Feather, the longtime jazz critic for The Times, thought Scott’s might even be the best jazz club in the world. “The success of Scott’s can be attributed to his having had the right idea in the right place at the right time,” Feather wrote in 1980.

Scott occasionally offered odd pairings at his club. He once put jazz guitarist Barney Kessel together with leading British classical guitarist John Williams.

Scott, who never married, was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1981 for his contributions to jazz. He promptly dubbed it the award for Other Bastards Efforts.