FUNDAMENTAL AS ANYTHING

The jazz trumpeter Willy Hasson is probably on the British security services' list of dangerous Islamic extremists.

I discovered this in Sandino's the other night. Willy dandered in around midnight, sank a pint and exchanged eye-messages the way jazzmen do with Micky McDermott (sax), Sean Canning (bass) and Declan Carlin (piano). Then he fetched the horn from its black valise and joined the resident trio on stage, his cheeks puffed up like a marsupial with a winter's supply of nutriments in its face-pouches and squeezed out exquisite renditions of 'Misty', 'Basin Street', 'Never Entered My Mind' and 'Mood for Love'.

Later, we talked about the peace process and decommissioning, which led to comparisons with the Middle East. It was this which prompted Willy to remark: "I have 20 Islamic calendars".

One for every year of the past two decades, apparently, neatly arranged, as if in a devotional frieze, around the walls of the room where he rehearses.

Willy explained that towards the end of 1977 a mail-shot offer from the London HQ of the Islamic Brotherhood dropped through his letter-box, addressed to "Willy Hassan". Would Brother Hassan help the cause by buying one of the Brotherhood's calendars?

Says Willy: "I didn't like to insult them, so I sent off the fiver, and back came the calendar. The same offer has come every year since around the middle of November. I always send the money. It would be embarrassing if I told them now it's a misunderstanding. They'd be disappointed. And they're not bad calendars"

I told him that if there's ever an outbreak of Islamic liveliness in the Derry area, I never heard of him. n