Are you ready for nine days of inspired music across 115 venues and featuring 234 performances, 218 of which are free? Incredible isn’t it? Welcome to the 34th Birmingham Jazz Festival, that has now spread its wings to include Solihull and Sandwell. Whatever your jazzy taste from Bebop to Trad, your musical intellect will be piqued amongst the enormous schedule that has been thoughtfully curated to include artists from all around the world. If we could attend all 234 shows we happily would but we will not be missing local legend, alto saxophonist Chris Bowden who makes several appearances throughout, revered singer songwriter, with four decades at the top, Leo Sayer and the outlandish Canadian jazz funksters The Shuffle Band. Old favourites, and we mean old, Les Zauto Stompers de Paris always float our foot tapping boat with their gallic brand of Dixie. Check out the full schedule here, with bands performing for free at most of the city’s landmarks throughout, we recommend taking in the sunshine, sounds, grab a bite to eat and soak up the glorious atmosphere the Jazz festival generates. The Brindleyplace bandstand is a favourite spot of ours, be sure to catch the barge based canal dwelling Water Gypsies there.

Fri 20 Jul to Sun 29 Jul at various venues. Full guide here.