Ronnie Scott  Ronnie Scott OBE (born Ronald Schatt, 28 January 1927 – 23 December 1996) was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, one of the UK's most popular jazz clubs, in 1959. Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, East London, into a Jewish family. His father, Joseph Schatt, was of Russian ancestry, and his mother Sylvia's family attended the Portuguese synagogue in Alie Street. Scott attended the Central Foundation Boys' School. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of 16. His claim to fame was that he was taught to play by "Vera Lynn's father-in-law!". He toured with trumpeter Johnny Claes from 1944 to 1945 and with Ted Heath in 1946. He worked with Ambrose, Cab Kaye, and Tito Burns. He was involved in the short-lived musicians' co-operative Club Eleven band and club (1948–50) with Johnny Dankworth. Scott became an acquaintance of the arranger/composer Tadd Dameron, when the American was working in the UK for Heath, and is reported to have performed with Dameron as the pianist, at one Club Eleven gig. Scott was a member of the generation of British musicians who worked on the Cunard liner "Queen Mary" intermittently from 1946 to around 1950 in to visit New York City and hear the new form of jazz called bebop in the clubs there. Scott was among the earliest British musicians to have been influenced by Charlie Parker and other players of modern jazz. In 1952, Scott joined Jack Parnell's orchestra and from 1953 to 1956 led a nine-piece band and quintet which included Pete King, with whom he later opened his jazz club, Victor Feldman, Hank Shaw, and Phil Seamen. He co-led The Jazz Couriers with Tubby Hayes from 1957 to 1959 and was leader of a quartet that included Stan Tracey (1960–67). From 1967–69, Scott was a member of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band, which toured Europe and included Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Simultaneously he ran his octet, which included John Surman and Kenny Wheeler, and a trio with Mike Carr on keyboards and Bobby Gien on drums (1971–1975). Scott's other bands often included John Critchinson on keyboards and Martin Drew on drums. He did occasional session work, which included performing the solo on "Lady Madonna", the 1968 single by the Beatles, playing on Roy Budd's score for the film "Fear Is the Key" (1972), and performing the tenor sax solo on "I Missed Again", the 1981 single by Phil Collins.