The Radio One DJ Gilles Peterson has recently released a double CD of some of the highlights from the live sessions he has featured on his show.
It has an all-star cast that includes Bjork, Beck, Roots Manuva and many more from the area where dance meets alternative rock and jazz.
But if there is one performance that grabs the listener's attention by the scruff of the neck it is the alto saxophone solo that emerges from the massed big band forces on track one.
That player is Chris Bowden, that band is the Heritage Orchestra, and they are all in town on Friday evening.
It seems to be the season of the "big gig" - last Sunday we had an extraordinary experience in Hall 3 of the ICC, courtesy of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, which featured four wind bands for one piece and over 100 saxophones for another.
Birmingham Jazz can't quite match that for Friday's CBSO Centre gig, but the Heritage Orchestra, boasting over 40 musicians and including a string section along with the conventional jazz instrumentation, will surely be the biggest group Tony Dudley Evans and gang have ever presented in this venue.
It's also the size of band Bowden needs to do full justice to his compositions and style.
On his two albums, Time Capsule and Slightly Askew, the Birmingham saxophonist has shown a highly individual musical vision that incorporates jazz and 70s rock kitsch in with contemporary beats.
Even when his musical forces are limited - a rhythm section, string quartet and himself, for example - the music always has an expansive sound, the result, one must assume, of his considerable compositional and arranging skills.
His own sound and style of playing the saxophone is similarly special. It has a definite heritage in the soul-jazz fusion playing of David Sanborn, but Bowden then adds more complexity to his improvisations by throwing in a generous dollop of bebop along with the R'n'B.
While Chris Bowden may be familiar to regulars at Birmingham jazz gigs, the Heritage Orchestra will not be.
Founded by Guildhall music students Chris Wheeler and Jules Buckley to give their fellow student musicians an alternative and more adventurous road forward instead of the conventional classical orchestral path, it came into its own at the Cargo club in London's Shoreditch in early 2004.
Since then they have given triumphant performances at the London Jazz Festival and at Montreux.
Chris Bowden and the Heritage Orchestra play the CBSO Centre on Friday at 8pm. Tickets are £12 and are available from the Symphony Hall Box Office 0121 767 4050 or online via the necgroup website.
It's part of The Series, an excellent programme stream that incorporates Birmingham Jazz and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group concerts - every one a winner.
Other gigs this week: Thursday: Andy Hamilton plays his regular session at Bearwood Corks Club along with the Blue Notes and guest Pete Hartley on violin. Doors open at 8.30pm and it costs £4. Friday: The Rob Norman Quartet play the Rush Hour Blues session, which this week starts at the later time of 6.15pm. Rob is the keyboard player from the Sugar Beats. It's free.
Saturday: The Limehouse Jazz Band play Birmingham United Services Club in Gough Street as part of the regular Jazz At The Waterworks gigs. It starts at 8.30pm and costs £6.
Sunday: Afro-Cuban jazz from Alma Latina as part of the new lunchtime session at The Stage in Paradise Place. It starts at 1pm and it's free. More info on 0121 212 2524.
* News and views by email please to pl_bacon@yahoo.co.uk
