The project that paved the way for one of the centre pieces of the Commonwealth Games arts programme is to feature as part of Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections where Scottish musicians can display their wares to promoters, producers and agents from across the world.

It was while working on Skye Bridge toll protest film The Bridge Rising, the feature length version of which premieres at GFT1 over the weekend of January 25-27, that Canadian musician and composer Scott Macmillan met musician and broadcaster Mary Ann Kennedy. Macmillan recorded a real instruments (as opposed to computer generated) version of his soundtrack to the film at Watercolour, the studio Kennedy runs with her husband, Nick Turner, in Ardgour near Fort William and it was during this visit that the idea for Kennedy's Aiseag (The Ferryboat) commission for the Commonwealth Games sprang.

Macmillan and Cape Breton fiddler Colin Grant are coming to Glasgow for the premiere and will use this as an opportunity to meet face to face the musicians they will be collaborating with via skype and electronic file transfers on Aiseag.

l turnernapier.co.uk/Aiseag.html

Club tunes up for birthday

Edinburgh jazz club Whighams gears up for its fifth anniversary in March with a February programme featuring Glasgow-based vocalist Louise Mochan with pianist Steve Hamilton's trio on February 2, pianist Paul Kirby's International Quartet (9th), London bossa specialists Chico Chica (16th) and jazz/soul vocalist Terry Shaltiel (23rd). It will soon announce a special attraction for March 30.

whighams.com/edinburgh.php

Skipinnish sell lots of albums

West Highland dance band Skipinnish are bucking the record industry trend. The sextet, whose concert at The Arches on January 24 was among the first Celtic Connections 2014 to sell out, have sold three times as many physical copies of their latest album, Atlantic Roar, than any of their previous releases The band, whose accordionist Angus MacPhail, comes from the island, will also be part of Tiree: Outside the Box at O2 ABC this Sunday.

l skipinnish.com

Tickets on sale for fundraiser

Tickets are available for The Sound of Seventeen's fundraising concert to raise money for victims of the Philippines' typhoon last year. Trumpeter Richard Abbott and saxophonist Nick Gould have organised a programme of music, hosted by BBC Radio Scotland's Jazz House presenter, Stephen Duffy at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, on January 24. Tickets from £5, proceeds to the Philippines Disaster Relief Fund.

l thequeenshall.net