Light the candle, shake out the bunting and raise a glass: Rush Hour Blues is one on Friday. The first anniversary is marked by a performance by Birmingham's favourite jazz son, the trumpeter Bryan Corbett, and there is much to celebrate. Let's start with the particular and move outwards shall we? First, then: Mr Corbett,. It's a rare thing but you know it when you hear it - a musician who has got to that place where they have found their voice, where the sound they make is true to their character, their outlook on life, on the influences that made them what they are.

Bryan Corbett has had that quality from remarkably early in his career. Sure, the references are always to Chet Baker, to Freddie Hubbard, and that's understandable, because he has a clear, cool Bakerish tone and a Hubbardish swagger and when the pace increases the mood becomes more expansive. But the Hereford-born 30-yeay-old has got to that point where he now sounds like nobody but himself. Not only is he a remarkably fine and self-assured improviser and interpreter of a jazz tune, he has a remarkably fine band too. Levi French on piano, Ben Markland on bass and Neil Bullock on drums. Evidence that this is Birmingham favourite jazz group is easily backed up.

They won a listeners' poll to find the group the Rush Hour Blues audience would most like to hear play this first birthday gig, which has certain symmetry to it, were also the first band to the play the Rush Hour Blues at the Symphony Hall bar. Which brings us on to the second reason for celebrating these free commuter jazz gigs. It's been part of' Birmingham Jazz boss Tony Dudley-Evans' thinking for years, and happened with varied success in the late lamented Fiddle & Bone among other venues. But it was only when it carne to the not-terribly-intimate surroundings of the fryer bar on level three at.Symphony hall that things really took off. Partly this has been due to the support of the venue, and the hard work done by Tony with Paul Keene, the hall's planning and projects Manager, both to publicise it and to fine-tune the presentation; partly it is due to the bar's ability to attract passing trade iii addition to the dedicated jazz crowd. And if ever a venue benefit ed from a big audience it is this concert-hall fever.

Tony Dudley-Evans has remarked that with any other jazz event he has masterminded, the musicians determine the audience: people come to see someone they have heard or are interested in. The Rush Hour Blues sessions are different: people come along often not aware of whom they'll be seeing. The just enjoy being there. Of course the fact that it's free helps, but that would count for nothing if the calibre of the music on offer were not of the highest standard.

So we come to our third reason for celebration: Birmingham's jazz musicians. This really does sound like a golden age for jazz in the city. The range of music on offer is extraordinary. Over the year we've had straight jazz singing from Brenda Scott, a Coltrane program from the Steve Tromans band with Lizzy Parks, we've had tango, DA with turntables, hands dedicated to the compositions of Duke Ellington, and some outstanding groups that have grown out of the Birmingham Conservatoire student ranks.
Listening to a solo from trumpeter Sal Erskine, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings or bassist Ben Markland it's difficult to believe there is any better music to be heard for free in any other city in the world.