Yes, a big shout out of support from me for both Jackie Daly and John Kirkpatrick.
Jackie was one of the guests at one of the “Button Boxes and Moothies” weekends in Aberdeen some years back now and there was some pretty impressive playing from him, as well as his stamina for keeping going well into the night!
John Kirkpatrick has run one of the Big Band workshops at Sidmouth Festival for many a year, and I have attended many of them so have got used to his dry sense of humour. And talking of harmony, his arrangements for the workshops are superb, tunes in 3- or 4- part harmony, scores in concert pitch as well as the transpositions needed for Bb and Eb instruments.
And yes, music does build bridges: I have been very happy playing with Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish musicians (sorry if I missed any nationalities there!)