Wayne Shorter's quartet opened Note's Double Helix series in DCU's splendid auditorium and gave an object lesson in taking risks; the IMC drew a hip, openminded rabble to the Project for 12 points! a smorgasbord of young European ensembles; Allen Smith's mini-festival at the Blue Note carried on Jazz on the Terrace's honourable tradition of pairing local and visiting musicians in live performance; and there were visits from international names like Esbjorn Svensson, Mark Levine, Kate McGarry and Branford Marsalis. The Bray Jazz Festival closes a weekend of top drawer jazz tonight with French clarinetist Louis Sclavis and other delights. And now this week come three concerts that might be regarded as mandatory.

First up on Wednesday is the very special duo meeting of guitarist Louis Stewart and top US bassist Peter Washington in the John Field Room at the National Concert Hall. There are few guitarists playing in the be-bop tradition, past or present, who can match Stewart's brilliance as an improviser, and in Washington he will have an experienced and responsive partner whose illustrious credits include stints with Art Blakey, Cedar Walton, and Tommy Flanagan.

The Double Helix series that began with Shorter's tour de force continues on Friday in the shape of saxophonist Charles Lloyd. Lloyd was one of the first jazz musicians to break through to the rock audience during the '60s when his quartet, featuring pianist Keith Jarrett, played to full houses in the fabled Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during the summer of love. Just as in the '60s, his group includes some of the leading musicians of the current scene, including the pianist Jason Moran and drummer Eric Harland.

And there's more: also on Friday, on the other side of the island, an equally unmissable tour begins, bringing together traditional virtuosos Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill with US electric guitar master Bill Frisell. Note Productions approached Hayes last year about a tour and Frisell's name came up as a possible collaborator. When Note's Gary Sheehan then spoke to Frisell it turned out that the guitarist was already a big fan of Hayes and Cahill. It's a measure of the talent and the open-mindedness of all three that they will so readily leave their comfort zones and reach out across the genres, and they will draw an equally adventurous audience from the highlands and the lowlands of the musical landscape. They begin a three date tour of Ireland in Glor in Ennis on Friday 11, then come to Dublin on Saturday night for a concert in Vicar Street, before heading south for the Cork Opera House next Sunday.

So now is not the time to flag.

Make hay while the jazz sun shines. Time enough for sleep when the summer comes and its raining again.