The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is in full swing and offering loads of fine jazz from pop to avant garde, so do try to catch some of it but if you’re stuck in the metropolis this weekend, never mind. There is still jazz life here too.

You can start the weekend with a little preview of a Cheltenham event in the form of a collaboration between jazz students at Birmingham Conservatoire and their counterparts from Trondheim Conservatory in Norway. It’s a free-entry session at Symphony Hall Cafe Bar and starts at 5pm. More at www.thsh.co.uk

From there it’s time for an album-launch gig out in Balsall Heath. Pianist Steve Tromans has pinched the title of his fourth solo album in the last 10 years, give or take some punctuation and a missing word, from Leonard Cohen, and there are other similarities too.

Written words, for example.

“The album’s concept,” as Steve explains, “is for the two source materials (the piano pieces and the written texts) to be fused in the experience of the listener/reader; literally creating a series of ‘songs’ from the notes and the words.”

Songs: of Love, of Hate is being released by Pinkhaus Records and launched at the Ort Cafe. The evening will feature pieces from the album, as well as special collaborations with fellow Birmingham-based musicians, Sid Peacock (vocals/narration), Ben Kane (vocals/electronics), Lluis Mather (saxophone/bass clarinet), and Holly Thomas (vocals).

Audience members will have the chance to download the album for free.

It’s an 8.30pm start, entry is £5 (£3) and you can find out more at steve-tro mans.co.uk and at www.ortcafe.co.uk.

Birmingham Jazz is presenting an exceptionally fine band with which to spend an intimate Sunday. The Cloudmakers Trio is vibes player Jim Hart’s baby and he is joined by Michael Janisch on double bass and Dave Smith on drums.

Three finer players of their respective instruments currently working in this country it would be hard to find. Hart is part of the London-based LOOP Collective, and you might have heard him here not long ago as part of Stan Sulzman’s Neon Quartet.

The Cloudmakers Trio is at The Red Lion, Warstone Lane, Jewellery Quarter from 7.45pm, tickets on the door are £10 (£8 for members).

* Other good gigs this week:

Tonight - There is a Blue Notes-led jam session at the Silvershine Jazz Club, Bearwood Corks Club, Bearwood from 9pm, tickets £4. More at www.bearwoodjazz.co.uk

Tuesday - David Austin Grey’s Greyish Quartet with Sam Wooster on trumpet is at The Spotted Dog in Digbeth from 9pm, £5 donation recommended. More at www.blambirmingham.co.uk.

Wednesday - The Lee Jones Quintet is at No 1 Shakespeare Street, Stratford-upon-Avon from 8pm, tickets £8. More at www.stratfordjazz.co.uk.