A Mercury Music Prize nominee, prog rock legends, a sidesman for the legendary Ornette Coleman and a new version of a Jonathan Coe best-seller form the first month of Brighton Jazz Club’s new season.

“It does bring in that old chestnut of what jazz is,” says Brighton Jazz Club’s John Styles, who is part of the eight-strong committee of volunteers who programme the club, and organise each Friday night event.

“What I like about the programme, and what we try to do, is for everyone to put their two-pennyworth in, creating that variety to the programme which is unique to jazz.”

In a typically eclectic fashion this year’s season is being kicked off tonight by The Soft Machine Legacy, featuring former Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge, bassist Roy Babbington and drummer John Marshall, who between them guided the former prog-rockers to a more jazz fusion sound in the mid-1970s.

“We’re anticipating quite a following for John Etheridge,” says John. “His style is very relaxed and entertaining, he will play brilliantly then tell a story to the audience.”

Every year a jazz musician is honoured with a Mercury Music Prize nomination – although no jazz performer has yet won the title.

John believes this may change with Kit Downes, who is bringing his trio to the venue on Friday, and playing with Stan Sulzmann’s Neon Quartet on Friday, November 12.

“We have had Mercury Music Prize nominees before like Zoe Rahman,” says John. “In previous years jazz has seen lots of female singers like Claire Martin and Tina May become popular, now there seems to be a generation of stunning piano players.”

Kit was previously in the band Empirical, whose debut album was an album of the year for Mojo in 2007. He will find out next week whether his first CD with the Kit Downes Trio, Golden, will scoop the top prize.

When people talk about jazz, the saxophone is one of the main instruments most closely associated with the genre – and they feature heavily in this autumn’s programme.

“Benn Clatworthy [Friday, October 22] is an amazing tenor player,” says John. “Jean Toussaint [Friday, October 8] was with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the 1980s, Don Weller [Friday, November 26] has a career stretching back 30 years, and Julian Nicholas [Friday, December 3] is leading a tribute to Harry Beckett, who died a month ago.”

Another major player at the top of his game is saxophonist Tony Kofi, whose trio is playing on Friday, September 17. The show comes fresh from Kofi’s invitation to play tenor sax on recordings with legendary 80-year-old alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and bassist Jamaaledeen Tacuma in New York last June.

That’s not to say vocalists have been left out this season, although John admits they are a little thin on the ground over the next few months. Closing the autumn season on Friday, December 10, will be Cleveland Watkiss, the winner of this year’s London Jazz Award for best vocalist.

Perhaps the most unusual feature on this year’s programme is a spoken word show featuring pianist Alex Maguire and actress Lynette Densham, reinterpreting Jonathan Coe’s The Rain Before It Falls on Friday, September 24.

“It’s a new experience for all of us,” says John. “It’s a bit like the Beatnik days, when they combined poetry with jazz. Throughout Coe’s books there are references to music and jazz. Alex was in the band Hatfield And The North [as featured in Coe’s The Rotter’s Club].”

In fact Jonathan has credited Soft Machine Legacy saxophonist Theo Travis’s recording of Slow Life for inspiring The Rain Before It Falls, tying the September programme neatly together.

For more information visit the website www.brightonjazzclub.co.uk

* Doors 8pm, music from 8.30pm, tickets from £12/£10 to £15. Call 01273 709709