Orkney Image Library

Reeds in rhythm

George Gilmour on boxwood clarinet and (I think) Ian Boyter on his beloved Selmer tenor saxophone in front of the Stromness Hotel having just arrived off the St Ola for one of the early Stromness jazz festivals. They are in Criterion Marching Band 'uniform', though their marching - as distinct from their playing - left a little to be desired. But they soon settled back into their other roles in Bill Salmond's Louisiana Ragtime Band and the Spirits of Rhythm.
Sorry to be vague about so distinguished a Scottish jazzman as Ian Boyter, but memory plays tricks - and he's got his cheaters on. George Gilmour was a lightkeeper for some years (with a spell at Cantick Head). His enviable talent as a photographer is evident in NLB calendars and elsewhere.
He's on record as saying that if his longtime fellow jazzman Alan Quinn (trombone & vocals) gave up playing he would too, so now that the lovely Alan is no more I wonder if George is still active on the jazz scene. He hasn't played in Orkney for several years as far as I know.