A FOUR-day jazz festival is to bring some of the finest players in the world to the Lake District.

Contemporary jazz festival Ambleside Days, which is held at Zeffirellis, is back for a second year.

This follows its inaugural success last year, when it was nominated for the Jazz FM live experience of the year award.

This year the festival will feature such luminaries as Claire Martin OBE, multi-Grammy-winning Californian Paul McCandless, Tim Garland, Gwilym Simcock (Pat Metheny’s pianist of choice), Mike Walker on guitar and Joe Locke, from New York, on vibes.

Other big names to feature include violin player Thomas Gould, Yuri Goloubev on double bass, Nikki Iles and Jason Rebello on piano, Asaf Sirkis on drums, and many more.

What makes this festival unique is the exchange and interplay of these great musicians in different and exciting groupings: trios, quartets and larger ensembles.

Each evening there are two major performances in Zeffirellis main auditorium.

One hotly anticipated event is the launch of the new record featuring music by Austrian composer Johannes Berauer. The album comes out on Basho Records.

It is played by a quintet featuring Gwilym Simcock (piano), Thomas Gould (violin), Mike Walker (guitar), Martin Berauer (bass) and Bernhard Schimpelsberger (percussion).

Gwilym Simcock, a member of Pat Metheny’s current quartet, and Mike Walker, who played with virtually everyone from Kenny Wheeler to Dave Holland, are two of the finest musicians of the British jazz scene.

They will perform with violinist Thomas Gould, who has been described as “one of the most talented and charismatic British violinists of the younger generation” excelling in both classical and contemporary repertoire as well as jazz. He is director of the Britten Sinfonia.

Likewise, Martin Berauer and Bernhard Schimpelsberger are two of the leading young musicians of Austria.

Martin, living in Paris, is especially known for his expertise in the field of world music, and Bernhard, based in London, has built a reputation as a master of Indian rhythms, which have led him to collaborations with artists like Akram Khan and Anoushka Shankar.

Ambleside Days takes place on the first weekend of September, from August 30 to September 2.

It is organised by Zeffirellis, who host jazz performances every week throughout the year.

Tickets are available online or can be bought from Zefirellis.