Trumpeter Damon Brown is a favourite of Bristol audiences, and after spells living in Spain & France has become known as one of Europe's finest players. Damon brings with him for this visit one of Spain's best pianists, Ignasi Terraza. Ignasi is a wonderful player who has worked with many US greats, and in May this year won the highly prestigious Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition with judges including Marcus Roberts [pianist with Wynton Marsalis for many years] and Dr. John. Citing influences Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly and Ahmad Jamal, Ignasi's trio recordings swing like the clappers. You can hear sound clips here www.ignasiterraza.com. They are joined by Thad Kelly - bass & Andy Hague - drums.

Pianist Mike Willox has really helped to stimulate the Bristol scene over the past couple of years with projects such as Smith 'n' Willox & Kev & Mike's Groovy Thing. He's an exciting muscular player who's not afraid to go for it. This is his new quartet line-up with the fabulous Jake McMurchie - sax, Jim Barr - bass & Daisy Palmer - drums, all well known as members of BBC Jazz Award winners Get The Blessing.

Alto saxophonist James Morton is another mover & shaker of the Bristol scene. His high energy performances and extremely funky sound have attracted the attention of international tenor sax stars Pee Wee Ellis & Andy Sheppard, and James has been a regular collaborator with both over the past few years. He has two main bands, Porkchop & The Lunatics, so this will probably be one or the other or some kind of hybrid, likely to include Dan Moore - keys, Simon Gore or Ian Matthews - drums, Spencer Brown - bass or Denny Ilett - guitar. See myspace.com/jamesmortonsax

Shanti Paul Jayasinha is a fantastic trumpet player touring to promote his new CD Round Trip on Candid Records. Back in the 80s he started playing jazz alongside Jason Rebello, Tim Garland & Courtney Pine. More recently he has played with John Etheridge's Zappatistas and the Brand New Heavies,  and has become one of our best salsa trumpeters, working with Snowboy & The Latin Section, Roberta Pla, Alex Wilson, Cubana Bop and many more. See myspace.com/shantijazz & www.shantijazz.com. He's joined by Bristol's own king of salsa Jim Blomfield on piano, Thad Kelly - bass & Andy Hague - drums.

Born in the UK, saxophonist Benn Clatworthy has lived in Los Angeles since 1980, but returns home to tour the UK each year. A ferociously gifted player in the post-Coltrane mould, he has worked with US legends such as Cedar Walton & Lionel Hampton. "Sublime" - Jazz Times, "A master player" - LA Weekly, "A truly majestic sound" - LA City Beat. His visit is made extra special by the return to Bristol of Jonathan Taylor's superb piano playing, Riaan Vosloo - bass & Andy Hague - drums. Listen here www.bennclatworthy.com and myspace.com/bennclatworthy

Kit Downes is one of the UK's brightest new piano stars. He's been working with Gilad Atzmon, Empirical, Gerard Presencer, Stan Sulzman, Ian Ballamy, Clark Tracey etc. etc. Kit won the BBC 'Rising Star' Award in 2008 and was nominated for a British Jazz Award in both 2008 and 2009. The trio have been playing together since 2005. Their music concentrates on walking the fine line between improvisation and composition through an eclectic mix of influences. The band, featuring Calum Gourlay [Tommy Smith, Martin Speake, Tom Cawley] on bass and James Maddren [Marc Copland, Stan Sulzmann, Gwilym Simcock] on drums, has always been interested in making its music accessible, whilst not sacrificing any of its intellect - and doing so through new and original music. See myspace.com/kitsmusic

John-Paul Gard is one of the few people around prepared to lug a proper Hammond B3 organ about - it takes him hours to set up and hours to pack away and weighs the same as a baby elephant, but boy is it worth the effort. J-P is a master of the instrument and a master of the idiom, and offers a modern take on the classic Jimmy Smith sound. Joined by the ever excellent Ben Waghorn on various saxes and Eddie John on drums, prepare yourself for a very groovy evening.
See myspace.com/pedalmania

Bassist Riaan Vosloo is known as one of the best younger generation players in London, but is also becoming recognised as a highly creative band leader & composer. His last CD release was as the Twelves Trio entitled Here Comes The Woodman With His Splintered Soul [1965 Records], and has picked up rave reviews and radio airplay from the likes of Julian Joseph [Radio 2] & Giles Peterson [Radio 1]. Tonight we have a four piece version of the band, with Riaan on bass, Mark Hanslip - tenor sax, Rob Updegraff - guitar & Tim Giles - drums. Mark is playing in numerous London bands at present, and seems to be the man of the moment on tenor, Tim has played at the club several times before now, and is a brilliant drummer well known for his own band Fraud and work with Django Bates & Iain Ballamy. The cutting edge of the London scene. See myspace.com/twelvestrio