My friend Wally Houser, who has died aged 90, was a lawyer and sax player who had a massive effect on British jazz through his relationship with Ronnie Scott and his club.
Wally met Ronnie at a gig in Manchester in the late 1950s; he acted for him when he signed the lease on his first club in Gerrard Street, London, in 1959 and was the person who identified his body after his death in 1996. In between, he dealt with all the club’s legal affairs pro bono, played a key role in resolving the impasse between the UK and US musicians’ unions that made it difficult for Ronnie Scott’s club to book top American jazz musicians, and acted as babysitter to great artists who didn’t always make it to the stage in good nick without help.
One wonderful anecdote sums it up: Ben Webster, the great tenor sax player, was midway through a residency at Ronnie’s when he was booked for a one-nighter in Paris. Wally’s job was to meet him off the boat train at Victoria and deliver him safely to his hotel in Regent’s Park. There was no sign of Ben at the exit, however, so Wally walked the length of the train examining every compartment; eventually he glimpsed the top of a trilby hat just below window level, with Ben’s rather large body slumped on the floor. Somehow Wally got Ben awake enough to stagger to the train door – and fall into the gap between the train and the platform, where he remained stuck.
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