Music and movie lovers in Central Oregon are about to have a banging week. Besides live music taking place throughout area bars, clubs, theaters and elsewhere, Sisters Movie House is hosting a screening of the music documentary “Ronnie’s” at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday. The film is being shown as part of the local cinema’s Arts and Adventure 2022 series. Tickets will run you $15, and this doc is well worth the price of admission.

“Ronnie’s” chronicles the history of London’s famous jazz club and the somber story of its namesake, co-owner and brilliant saxophonist Ronnie Scott.

Writer and director Oliver Murray uses a vast array of archival footage of Scott, his business partner Pete King and an impressive number of performances throughout the club’s history to paint a fascinating portrait of Ronnie Scott’s, the “crucial catalyst of London’s jazz scene,” which is still up and running.

The man behind the name that eventually became famous in London’s music scene, Scott, was born to a poor Jewish family in London’s East End. The proper Cockney lad soon took a heavy interest in the saxophone and quickly became one of the best players in the country, eventually forming his own “co-op” band, which also included King. Upon one pivotal visit to New York City in the 1950s, he decided to start up a club of his own in the then-seedy Soho neighborhood of London.

As partners, Scott and King brought together English and American jazz musicians, growing the popularity of the genre throughout London and making the venue they created synonymous with quality jazz.

Murray’s nearly entire use of archival footage, with a few shots of the club today mixed in, helps completely immerse the viewer. You are transported right back to those late nights and early mornings of London in the ‘60s and ‘70s as the room at Ronnie Scott’s is pumped full of iconic jazz.

The film is as much a music video as it is a documentary. Some performances included within the film are truly inspiring, from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Roland Kirk (playing multiple saxophones nonetheless), Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Morrison and even a portion of the audio of Jimi Hendrix’s final live performance.

The music, rightly so, is the driving force of both the documentary and Ronnie’s life, and Murray blends the two well.

The documentary also uses interviews entirely in voiceover, again using archived interviews but also a large number of recent ones from other musicians, friends and family in Scott and King’s lives.

As many note throughout the documentary, Scott was a very private man and didn’t let on too much beyond his professional face, which at times leaves him a bit too vague.

We get a good look at Scott as a musician and club proprietor, but not as much as a man. His life imitated his art, but with many details left out, we don’t get a full of sense of him beyond what his family and friends chose to disclose. Luckily, it is just enough for it to work.

Scott was a key figure in the British jazz scene, and the club that still bears his name in Soho continues to follow in the path of pairing talented musicians with audiences eager to relish in the sounds of the genre.

If you are any kind of fan of jazz, or music in general, “Ronnie’s” is the place to be.

In theaters this week: The Dark Knight is back on the big screen again, this time even darker than before in “The Batman.” Check out my review of that online and in print in next week’s GO!

“Ronnie’s”

106 minutes

No MPA rating

3.5 stars