Brecon Jazz 2014 is the 30th anniversary year of the world-famous festival, and in tribute, the organiser Orchard has announced the first few names for August 8-10, with appearances by trumpeter Warren Vaché and renowned local band Mike Harries and the Root Doctors who both played at the first ever Brecon Jazz in 1984, a reunited Loose Tubes who took to the Brecon stage a year later, plus one of the major music successes of 2013.

Jazz trumpeter Warren Vaché played the very first Brecon Jazz in 1984 as a swing musician in his early 30s. He will be back in Brecon this summer with award-winning British Jazz Saxophonist Alan Barnes, while new generation Loose Tubes reunite for their own 30th anniversary this year after a hiatus of some 24 years. Under multi-instrumentalist and composer Django Bates, the 21-strong big band features a whole generation of British Jazz talent, having played the Brecon festival in 1985. They will feature familiar names such as Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Julian Argu?elles, Martin France, Chris Batchelor, Eddie Parker and Ashley Slater for their appearance in Brecon.

One of the real finds of 2013, soul singer/songwriter and Mercury Prize nominee Laura Mvula won Best Female Act and Best R&B or Soul Artist at the 2013 MOBO Awards, achieved a Top 10 debut album for Sing To The Moon, and was highly acclaimed for her haunting vocal performances, including the Pyramid Stage at last year’s Glastonbury.

Mike Harries is now in his 80s, but his Cardiff-based good time band the Root Doctors will once again return to excite a Brecon audience.

Last summer Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra brought the festival to a rousing close in the iconic Market Hall after acclaimed performances by the likes of Phronesis, Zoe Rahman and The Impossible Gentlemen. Django Bates thanked his Saturday night audience at Theatr Brycheiniog for “putting on a real Jazz festival – they are so rare these days”, MOBO Award winner Zoe Rahman told a live TV audience how much she loved coming back to play Brecon, and a number of artists tweeted how much they enjoyed the experience.

Brecon Jazz came from an original idea in the autumn of 1983 by the Brycheiniog Association for the Arts, and the following summer “New Orleans beneath the Beacons” was born, since when it has hosted some of the luminaries of global music such as Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Stephane Grappelli, Cleo Laine and Amy Winehouse. In the past 30 years over a million people from across the world have flocked to the town, bringing millions of pounds into the mid Wales economy and introducing the area to a whole new audience.

The full Brecon Jazz 2014 programme will be announced on February 26 and tickets available from February 28.