The arrival of the Mermaid Arts Centre in 2002 added an excellent concert hall to the mix of venues, which include Bray's Town Hall and many of the more enlightened pubs on the seafront, including a dedicated piano room in the Esplanade Hotel.

Previous headliners of the festival have included Steve Coleman, Jim Black and Tomasz Stanko, but this year Bray has really excelled itself.

This year's headline is a true legend of the music, whose impact has been particularly strong on the current generation, making his debut in Bray a timely piece of programming.

Chicago-born pianist Andrew Hill rose to prominence during the '60s with a series of recordings for the legendary Blue Note label, including the record that many would consider to be his masterpiece, Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1964). The freshness of the ideas, and the delightful tension between the known and the unknown make this one of the greatest records in the jazz canon and a must-hear for any serious fans of the music.

Hill's great achievement, largely overlooked at the time, was to find a way to embrace the new ideas coming from Ornette Coleman and the free jazz movement, without jettisoning the older values of groove and harmony which the be-bop generation had held so dear. Some would say that it has taken the rest of the jazz world 50 years to catch up with Hill's concept.

Tickets for his performance at the Mermaid on Friday night are likely to be snapped up fast, but do not despair . . . the rest of this year's programme is equally worth checking out, with an impressive roster of visitors including Vietnamese via Paris guitarist Nguyen Le, UK saxophonists Andy Sheppard and Soweto Kinch, and an eagerly anticipated first visit from the much-feted young British pianist Gwylim Simcock.

As usual, local representation is strong in this year's festival; guitar duo Mike Nielsen and Ben Dwyer open the festival in the town hall on Friday evening with a performance of music from their recent album Evolution, pianist Phil Ware and his excellent trio get the prestigious slot opening for Hill on the Mermaid the same night, guitarist Tommy Halferty's French Connection features Hammond organist JeanPhilippe Lavergne and saxophonist Boris Blanchett in the piano room on Sunday night, and there will be another chance to hear Ronan Guilfoyle's composition, Simulacrum, which will feature the celebrated French violinist Dominique Pifarely and the Canadian viola player Tanya Kalmanovitch as well as Limerick guitarist Joe O'Callaghan.

New York pianist David Berkman is no stranger to Irish audiences either, but he returns this time not with his own band, but to play with Ireland's leading saxophonist Michael Buckley in a group that also includes Scottish bassist Aidan O'Donnell and the inventive Sean Carpio on drums. It is a line-up that represents the best of Ireland's younger generation, and may well be the hit of the festival. Just as well, then, that they are also undertaking a short national tour, taking in the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork on Tuesday 25, Ballina Arts Centre on Wednesday 26, and Letterkenny Arts Centre on Thursday 27.

Berkman and O'Donnell will also play a supporting role in a tribute to guitarist Jim Hall at the United Arts Club on Monday 24, as part of the Dublin Jazz Society's 'Seventy Fives' series. The concert will feature guitarist Tom Harte, one of the stalwarts of the Dublin scene and, through his teaching at Newpark, an inspiration to a younger generation of Irish guitarists.