Ranging from international legends to home-grown British stars, other names to hit the stage in 2004 include Cassandra Wilson, John Taylor, Joe Zawinul, Gilles Peterson, Carleen Anderson, Silje Nergaard, Hermeto Pascoal and Amp Fiddler.

The festival is programmed for the third year by Tony Dudley-Evans, winner of the award for Services to Jazz at the 2003 BBC Jazz Awards. 

He said: "The 2004 Festival is bigger and broader than ever, using more venues and exploring new styles of event alongside the familiar focus on the best of jazz from around the world.

"With a number of specially-formed collaborations exclusive to Cheltenham, this year promises to be our best one yet."

Jamie Cullum

The festival opens with the hugely popular Courtney Pine. Fresh from his 2004 UK ‘Devotion’ tour, Courtney promises an entertaining evening of afro-rock and reggae influenced jazz.

He is joined by guest vocalists Carleen Anderson (of the Brand New Heavies) and David McAlmont (of duo McAlmont & Butler) for a fantastic night of music to dance to.

The festival is also proud to welcome back Jamie Cullum, who has earned the title ‘Sinatra in sneakers’. A huge hit at Cheltenham last year just after he signed to Universal Jazz for a record £1million, he has since won the Rising Star award at the 2003 BBC Jazz Awards and been nominated as best breakthrough artist at the 2004 Brit Awards.

More home-grown talent comes in the form of the jazz-inspired Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson.

On festival Saturday he headlines with Barbados-born composer and trumpeter Harry Beckett and Amp Fiddler, a man who has played on records by Prince and the Brand New Heavies and has been causing a stir on dance floors recently with his unique brand of laid-back soul. A one-off night of great music starting with jazz and ending – well, who knows where?

Taking up the role as this year’s Artist-in-Residence is British pianist John Taylor. A major contributor to UK jazz since the 1970s, John’s music has classical influences as well as plentiful improvisation, making it unique in being both structured and unpredictable.

John will perform in three different contexts over the Festival - a solo piano set, a big band set and as part of a special one-off collaboration entitled the John Taylor International Quartet.

This event, unique to the Festival, sees him joined by Mark Feldman on violin, Chris Laurence on bass and a special guest appearance by one of the giants of the jazz scene, guitarist John Abercrombie.

Another exclusive event this year, incorporating both the Festivals of Jazz and Literature, is a major commissioning project featuring new music by British trumpet star Gerard Presencer.

Gerard has written new music for his quintet based on The Devil’s Larder, a series of 64 short stories on the subject of food by jazz fan and prize-winning author Jim Crace. Witty, inventive and surprising, this promises to be an unmissable first performance.

Earthworks Underground is another specially-formed collaboration for the Festival; commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 (Jazz Lineup).

The common link is Tim Garland, the energetic saxophonist and leader of the renowned all-star Dean St Underground Orchestra based at Soho’s Pizza Express and a member of Earthworks, led by the former Genesis/Yes drummer, Bill Bruford. Music for this large ensemble will include special arrangements of Earthworks repertoire by Django Bates and Tim Garland.

The festival wouldn’t be complete without its fair share of international stars - and this year brings legendary Vienna-born keyboardist Joe Zawinul, the ‘grand old man of world-jazz fusion’ to Cheltenham for the first time.

Another European artist to capture the imagination is Silje Nergaard, a young Norwegian singer with a captivating style and an easy-to-listen-to yet intriguing voice.

There's also a rare UK performance by the charismatic Cassandra Wilson. Soothing, sultry and sexy, her distinctive, sumptuous and husky contralto voice has brought her worldwide fame over the past ten years with a string of top-selling albums delving into both jazz and pop.

Courtney Pine

Further American influences on the Festival include Joe Locke & his Four Walls of Freedom band now featuring Tommy Smith on saxophones and, from the New York creative scene, the Drew Gress Quintet.

A highlight at the festival's other main venue the Everyman Theatre is the return of the Hemeto Pascoal Anglo-Brazilian Big Band. 

Explosive performance, cutting edge composition and untapped talent is the trademark of the Jerwood Rising Stars programme, a series devoted to presenting and promoting up-and-coming jazz stars and includes performances, commissions and new collaborations from some of the most talented young jazz artists in the UK today.

Highlights include specially-commissioned music from Arnie Somogyi, a new Anglo-American collaboration between Liam Noble and Drew Gress, and a new project featuring innovative young guitarist David Okumu.

For night owls, there are late-night jazz clubs at the Everyman bar including Chris Batchelor, Ian Ballantine and Chris Biscoe; a jazz dance night at the Pittville Pump Room and a club night at Sub Tone.

Early birds can enjoy a musical wake-up call in a breakfast show with the Dennis Rollins Shout Band, a drum clinic with Clark Tracey or a discussion brunch at the Hotel Kandinsky on Women in Jazz.

And that's not all - the Jazz Fringe complements the festival proper with a laidback programme of nu-jazz, funk, breaks 'n' beats mixing big names and local talent. The Fringe brochure is out in early April.

Dominic Hamilton, Festival Organiser, says: "The Festival brings the very best in contemporary jazz from around the world to Cheltenham.

"With this year's all-star line-up and plenty of new music and venues, there should hopefully be something in the programme to interest everyone.”

You can order brochures from www.cheltenham festivals.co.uk or ring the box office to book tickets.

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