With a less hectic jazz week ahead of us, there's time to look a little ahead to the end of month holiday weekend that is the new home of the Coventry Jazz Festival.

The dates might have changed, but the Coventry recipe for success remains with a fine mix of music to suit specialist jazz taste in both the mainstream and cutting edge areas, as well as blues and rock gigs that have only the flimsiest link to jazz.

Highlight of day one, Thursday, May 26, has to be the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, or EST as they are more fashionably known.

This Swedish band has singlehandedly (well, almost - America's The Bad Plus must also take some of the credit) revitalised the formerly rather staid piano trio format, and in the process have brought a new, younger audience to jazz.

And, unlike the pretty pop singers erroneously labelled jazz, EST's appeal is not the result of watering down the jazz elements - they play hard, fast and with a dedication to expressing the core principles of jazz in a fresh way.

Of course the rock lighting and the exacting attention to the subtleties of their sound system help.

EST are at The Belgrade Theatre at 8pm.

My choice for day two, Friday, May 27, is the Italian pianist Stefano Bollani. This is his second visit to Coventry, having wowed them the first time around partnering trumpeter Enrico Rava.

His duo album with Rava, recorded live in Montreal, the recent Rava quintet disc Easy Living, as well as his solo disc on Label Bleu, show Bollani to be a very exciting piano jazz innovator. There is a clear classical background to his virtuoso technique, but he also swings hard and brings an anarchic wit and humour to his music.

Stefano Bollani is at St Mary's Hall at 6pm.

On Saturday the highlight comes first, with the brilliant London quartet Partisans, co-led by guitarist Phil Robson and tenor saxophonist Julian Siegel, with Thad Kelly (recently heard in Coventry with Billy Jenkins) and Gene Calderazzo on drums.

Partisans have been around for a long time now and have always been a good band, combining jazz chops and a rock fusion attitude in a fresh way, but over the last couple of years they have grown in stature. Their new album, Max, due for release next month, shows them to be a great band, and they generate an extraordinary excitement and energy in concert.

Partisans are at the Belgrade Grand Cafe at 12 noon.

After the exhilarating experience of Partisans so early in the day, you might be in need of a more laid-back evening, and Jazz Jamaica's pop hook-filled, reggae rhythm fuelled reworkings of the best of Motown is just perfect. A pity that they are in the seated Belgrade Theatre as this is one of the most satisfying dance bands in the land.

Jazz Jamaica presents Motown Reloaded at 8pm.

For Sunday's and other Coventry tips, see next week's diary: meanwhile you can take a look at visitcoventry.co.uk/jazz or call 024 7622 7264.

Meanwhile, it's back to the present, and tonight, if you're up at the northern end of this paper's circulation area, take note that the fine guitarist Jim Mullen is at the Old Brown Jug in Bridge Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme. Jazz At The Jug, as the Wednesday evening programme is known, is filled with excellent names, with Asaf Sirkis, Esther Miller and Iain Ballamy on the bill for future weeks.

Jim Mullen plays from 9.30pm but the doors are open from 6pm. There's more information on 07751 964 815 or on theoldbrownjug.co.uk