You ask how I met Ronnie. Well, I had gone to London about

September, 1972 and discovered a pub called "The

Kensington" which had jazz three or four times a week.

One Friday evening I decided to go to see the Tony Lee trio.

When I walked into the pub there was a baritone player with

the trio. He had the most amazing tone, that`s one of the

things that stood out. He played a ballad, Here`s that Rainy

Day. It was played so beautifully. I was amazed.

When the set was over, he came and stood next to me at the

bar and I struck up a conversation with him. I asked him, did

he do this for a living or did he have a day job? He had

recognised my accent as Aussie, just chuckled and said that he

very much did music as a living, mentioning session work as

well as jazz gigs. I told him that I was going to buy a sax the

following day. He asked did I know what I was looking for?

When I said no, he offered to meet me at the Selmer shop in

Shaftsbury Avenue at about midday. We kept the appointment

and when we went into the store the manager came bouncing

out of the office and greeted Ronnie effusively. I was

wondering, who the hell is this guy?

He introduced me as his student and a beautiful reconditioned

Selmer Mk6 tenor sax was presented for £150!  Of course, I

bought it. Whilst in the soundproof room he showed me where

to put my fingers. I had the basic idea as I had played a bit of

flute previously. When we left the store I asked him if he gave

lessons. He said not usually but for some reason made an

exception in my case. He told me to fool around with it for a

few weeks and give him a call which of course I did and we

went from there.

How did I find him as a person? He was very well spoken and

articulate, very gracious, very willing to share information on

technique. He showed me a lot of tricks. In his obituary, I

think there was mention of belligerence. I never saw that,

although like all of us he had his bad days. He liked a drink

but I wouldn`t describe him as an alcoholic. He did from time

to time use other substances. I often smoked a bit of dope with

him. He said that when he was a bit younger he had used a bit

of heroin and cocaine and told me anecdotes about Phil

Seamen and Dizzy Gillespie and some drug usage with them.

But when I knew him he said he only used hard drugs "at

Christmas or my birthday".

He had a fairly wicked sense of humour. He said to me once

that his cat had passed away. "You know how cats always

land on all fours when they fall?" Yes, I replied. "Not when

they`re on LSD they don`t!", he roared.

He lived there with his girlfriend Toni (Antonia) Cooke, a brilliant french

horn player. She was a permanent member of his nonet, Eight to One -

eight guys and one woman. I do know that he had a daughter from his

marriage, which like many musos ended in divorce before I knew him.

She would have been in her late teens or early twenties when I was there.

I never met her.

What was he like as a teacher? A very hard taskmaster. Quick

to praise if you had done the work but would become angry if

you were lazy. He did shout at me once or twice but only

because I had not done my practice. The lessons took place in

his flat and he charged me £3 a lesson - supposed to be an

hour but as we progressed it could go on for up to three hours

but he never charged me more. Afterwards, we would have a

cup of tea and a joint! He was not teaching me improvisation.

I was in the early stages of learning music, but he always

encouraged me to experiment. 

How much did I learn from Ronnie? I guess you could say I

learnt most of the major keys from him. But one thing that I

did learn was a very big tone. When I came back to Australia

in early 1974, I virtually didn`t touch the horn for several

years. However, when I took up the sax again I still had the

book "The Saxophone Method" by Otto Langey which I had

used with Ronnie. But more importantly I remembered a set

of exercises that he had taught me for dexterity and for tone. I

remember a musician friend hearing me doing these exercises

once and he commented "No wonder you get around that

horn so well!" Many people commented on my tone. I

overheard an audience member telling his friend at a gig I

was playing, "I came in and heard this great big tone and

when I looked at the band there was this little guy making it!"

That was Ronnie`s legacy to me.

 By the way - yes, we did play together during lessons. The

Langey book often has two lines and Ronnie played the

harmony parts. 

He did speak occasionally of his time in the Grenadier

Guards. I`m sure he used the army to get a thorough musical

education at Kneller Hall which was the army music

academy. He said that there was a group of them who were

always trying to get away on the weekend to try the jazz thing.

He seemed to be fairly busy. There were always sessions to be

done or rehearsals of his own. He did a lot of work with Bill

Le Sage and trombonist Keith Christie. I don`t remember any

of the rhythm sections.

Instruments: He played a Selmer baritone with a Berg

Larssen mouthpiece. He had altered the lay slightly and used

Vandoren number 3 reeds. I still have a Berg Larssen tenor

mouthpiece that he sold me. He said number 3 reeds were not

too hard but strong enough for good tone. He played alto,

tenor and baritone saxes, flute, alto flute, clarinet and bass

clarinet when I knew him.

Did he say anything about taking up the baritone? He told me

that he was in a band with Don Rendell - two tenors of course

- and that Don suggested that one of them should get a

baritone so as to vary the sound. He said that he would and

that he was virtually hooked from the beginning. Of course,

he spoke very highly of Gerry Mulligan and he did write some

liner notes for a Mulligan record released in the UK.

Some time in 1973 he took his band Eight to One to Europe to

record an album for MPS. He played me the demo tape when

he got back. I remember "Its a Big Wide Wonderful World",

which he had previously recorded with Allan Ganley and also

a new composition for flute called "Blue is the Game. I don`t

know what happened to those sessions. MPS recorded the

Kenny Clarke - Francy Boland band so Ronnie was pretty

pleased that they had offered him a recording. He was also

part of the studio band CCS (Consolidated Consciousness

Society) which was a vehicle for the vocals of Alexis Korner.

There was an album and a single "The Band Played Boogie.

But, you know, he knew that he was a very good player and

was proud of it. He said to me once "If anybody asks you if

you`re good, tell them yes, that you`re very good. There are a

lot of people in this business who are jealous of success any

only want to bring you down".