Congratulations to John Cumming, who has just been made an OBE in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. His involvement in producing jazz goes back to his days running the theatre and music programmes at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell from 1973, where he started the Bracknell Jazz Festival. The press release continues:

“He also programmed the Camden Jazz Week from the late 70s and into the early 90s, and as it evolved into what has become today’s EFG London Jazz Festival, which celebrated its 21st birthday last year. He has been a member of a number of Arts Council and Regional Arts panels and committees, and until recently was a long-standing board member of Europe Jazz Network. He received Services to Jazz Awards at the 2005 BBC Jazz Awards, and in 2012 from the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group.”

Other musical awardees include Eliza Carthy and Cerys Matthews, Janis Susskind of Boosey and Hawkes who publishes, among others, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and the veteran Scottish songwriter Bill Martin.