Nine months after the death of its presiding genius Jed Williams, the Brecon jazz festival celebrated its 21st birthday in the manner he loved - streets teeming with fans and bands, music on every space from a patch of grass to a theatre.

The biggest, though perhaps unjazziest, star was Amy Winehouse - who was soulfully eloquent in front of a punchy horn section on Saturday. The same night, trumpeter Randy Brecker had everybody from teenagers to pensioners leaping to his mix of hard postbop and vintage Brecker Brothers backbeat jazz.

More demure music on Saturday came from the young, vocally-formidable US retro singer Jane Monheit - who eerily recalls Vera Lynn as much as Ella Fitzgerald, and whose vampy body language suggests she's performing to a mirror rather than an audience. Monheit briefly duetted with Brazilian singer/guitarist Dori Caymmi, João Gilberto's son. Caymmi's private, murmuring singing style and lateral arrangements of standards was, with Monheit and elsewhere, a quirky festival highlight.

The Welsh Jazz Composers' Orchestra, presenting originals by pianist/accordionist Huw Warren, bassist Paula Gardiner and others, was particularly imposing for operatically bluesy singer Li Harding and the gifted Warren's piano-playing and mix of swinging drive and slashes of bold colour.

Veteran trumpeter Kenny Wheeler later reworked his vividly mournful songs through inspired performances by himself and guitarists John Abercrombie and John Parricelli, with bassist Chris Laurence. Veteran Scottish saxophonist Bobby Wellins was also at his slyly-paced best on Sunday. And Wellins's younger sax-playing countryman Tommy Smith unfolded the delicate arts of tone control, while his bassist Aidan O'Donnell showed why Smith calls him "the Scottish Dave Holland".