Album: Sid Peacock & Surge, La Fête (Peacock Angel)

As heard at last year's Cheltenham Jazz Festival, this is Brum-based Irish composer Peacock's knockout suite of carnivalesque compositions, played by a 16-piece big band where strings and percussion can be as important as horns.

The seven pieces are a little uneven but there's some fabulous stuff here, especially the euphoric "Hallucinogenic Garden" and the yearning "Bit of Peace". The album is launched at Birmingham's MAC this Thursday, with Django Bates guesting.