Pete King

 

Pete King, saxophonist who co-founded Ronnie Scott’s club

Born: 23 August 1929, died 20 December 2009, aged 80

 

Club owner and former saxophonist Pete King, who together with Ronnie Scott founded the world’s most famous jazz club 50 years ago, died last week after a long illness.

Born in Bow, East London, Peter Stephen George King took up the clarinet and saxaphone as a teenager, taught by Vera Lynn’s father-in-law, Harry Lewis.

He began his working life as an apprentice coachbuilder with London Transport but quickly decided to become a professional musician. It was around this time that he met Ronnie Scott during a dance held at Stoke Newington town hall.

King played with Scott in a number of jazz bands before the pair decided to open their joint venture in Soho, London, in 1959.

With the help of a loan from Scott’s stepfather, they took a lease on the basement of 39 Gerrard Street, Soho, furnished it with an array of second-hand tables and chairs, painted the walls, hired a piano and opened for business. Annual membership was 10 shillings while admission was one shilling and sixpence.

Although the club had modest success for two years King and Scott both realised that in order to ensure longevity they would need to include American jazz stars in their line-up.

Attracting major figures from the world of jazz including Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and Ella Fitzgerald the club moved to bigger premises in Frith Street in 1965.

With Scott taking on the the role of compere, King ran the club on a day-to-day basis, doing everything from booking the stars to calculating the waitresses’ nightly commission. Arriving at noon and working until 3am six days a week, he took care of the artists’ work permits, paying all the bills and maintaining all the necessary licences.

Despite finanical blips during the 1970s the club’s fortunes improved from the mid-1980s, thanks partly to jazz’s growing popularity with a younger audience and partly to an imaginative booking policy. By the time it celebrated its 35th birthday in 1994, Ronnie Scott’s was established as one of the world’s foremost jazz venues.

Following the death of Scott in 1996 King continued to manage the club for nine years before deciding to sell the venue in 2005 to Sally Green, the owner of the Old Vic.