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It's been said that jazz came to the UK through the doors of Ronnie Scott's. On October 30th, the legendary club celebrates its 50th birthday and Radio 2 marks the occasion with a documentary looking at Scott, the man, musician and humourist; the impact that American jazz had on the British jazz scene; the club's place in jazz history and its continued importance today.

Presented by Jamie Cullum, the programme covers the highs and lows, as the club continued to stay in business while jazz went in and out of fashion. As well as playing rare archive interviews with Ronnie Scott himself, we hear what the future might hold for the venue. It is a colourful montage of archive, new comment and the best in jazz music. New interviews include Sonny Rollins, Diana Krall and Monty Alexander as well as leading UK musicians such as Courtney Pine, Guy Barker and Claire Martin, among many others.

In 1940s Britain, hungry young British jazzers, including saxophonist Ronnie Scott, found themselves drawn to the new jazz emanating from America. Unable to buy bebop records in the UK, there was only one thing to be done: they had to go to New York to hear the musical revolution first hand. Ronnie was determined to found a jazz club in the UK like the ones he experienced on his trips to New York, and in December 1948 he and nine other musicians including John Dankworth, Hank Shaw, Lennie Bush and Joe Muddel opened a club on London's Great Windmill Street, which they called Club Eleven. The ten musicians, plus manager Harry Morris, created a space which rapidly became the place for London-based jazz musicians to hang out. In the days before mobiles, email and text messages, musicians got gigs by being in the right place at the right time. And the right place was Club Eleven.

Ronnie and his colleagues brought bebop to the UK in those days, and young British jazz musicians flocked to the club to hear this new music and to try to learn from the new British heroes. As time went by Ronnie and Peter King began a search to find a suitable venue to "upscale" Club Eleven and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club formally opened on Friday 30 October 1959. The first night featured a small group billed - in typical Ronnie style - as "a young alto saxophonist, Peter King, and an old tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott". The club moved to 47 Frith Street in 1965.

Ronnie's dream was to create the perfect environment in which to listen to, and play, jazz. By inviting the giants of the day like Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone - among hundreds of others - to this intimate setting, the club earned itself a very special place in jazz history. The simple fact is that the club was the epicentre of activity that moved a largely American form of music across the Atlantic by taking the star performers of the day from the streets of New York to the streets of Soho, leading to the birth of a world class British jazz scene. For over 30 years, Ronnie led an active life as a leading British saxophonist, godfather of jazz, humorist (his droll introductions at the club are the stuff of legend) and entrepreneur, and his position and importance in the life of British jazz cannot be overestimated.

"You know so many great artists have played on that stage, you're just humbled by being up there. There's a certain vibe in a room like that that's different from playing in a new jazz club. It's kind of like Carnegie Hall or playing in a place like the Village Vanguard - there's just been so much music discovered and played there, it's just immediately inspiring when you walk in." Diana Krall.