Cheltenham event offers cream of new jazz talent. (Jazz).

When one thinks of major UK jazz festivals, London, Brecon and Bath are probably the first events that spring to mind. But Cheltenham, now in its eighth year, is carving out a rightful place as a serious contender. The festival has reached a stage where it can attract top-class improvisers from around the world and programme them evenly and intelligently across a week's worth of gigs that also unveil up-and-coming talent.

One glance at the line-up for this year's festival, which runs from April 30 to May 5, should be enough to any sceptic of Cheltenham's credentials. From across the Atlantic comes Michael Brecker, arguably the most technically gifted saxophonist alive today, along with the mercurial, prolific trumpeter Dave Douglas and the brilliant and adventurous pianist Uri Caine. European representation includes Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, Swedish "pop" stars Esbjorn Svensson Trio and Norwegian electrofusioneer Nils Pettar Molvaer, who appears at a special club night with DJs Gilles Peterson and Jazzanova. Also in attendance will be Jamie Cullum, Universal's new 1m [pounds sterling] signing and a regular in these pages.

The artistic director of the event is Tony Dudley-Evans, ex-TEFL teacher and music enthusiast with a cache of vinyl marked by Saharan dust to underline the confluence of the two. This is the second year that Dudley-Evans has programmed the festival and he is hitting a healthy stride. "I've made it slightly more broader and eclectic this time," he says. "I'm keen to reflect virtually everything that's going on in jazz at the moment. I think that the club session with Gilles Peterson and Nils Pettar Molvaer is very important and so are the Jerwood Rising Stars gigs. Those enable me to programme young, up-and-coming British artists and so far the ones who have appeared really have ...