Longtime West Valley band forges long relationships

Joe and Barbara Vecera didn’t meet at work. They didn’t find each other online. And they certainly didn’t hook up a bar.

It was music that brought them together — in the form of a fledgling little community band that got its start in the 1970s.

Joe, a 69-year-old trumpet player, and Barbara, a 70-year-old flutist, have played for decades in the Arizona Winds band, which is in the midst of its 51 season with five free shows at the Vista Center for the Arts in Surprise.

The north Glendale couple has been part of the band since the 1980s. Barbara joined it a few years before Joe, but she quit because of family life with her first husband and their children. When she returned a couple of years after Joe had joined, he quickly developed a

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