AT school in Bromyard and later at Hereford Sixth Form College, Bryan Corbett had two great loves - music and sport.

Today, he is so busy playing one that he has no time for playing the other. Even as he left university in Liverpool, "I wanted to be a sportsman more than a musician."

Recognising the need to get a job, though, music claimed him. "I worked buying and selling musical instruments and made contacts that way," says Bryan. "I was playing in big bands and orchestras, then took it on myself to run my own band and built it up from there."

Today, Bryan Corbett is a trumpeter with an international reputation, playing at next week's Cheltenham Jazz Festival with his quartet, the Bryan Corbett Quartet.

Bought a trumpet at the age of seven by his father, who played piano, saxophone and clarinet, Bryan, who is now 32, was immersed in music from the start, joining his brother who played the sax and is now a sound engineer and lecturer in Kansas. His mother didn't play at all - "Though she did later learn the sax," reports Bryan.

Although he had been playing professionally since 1999, it was his first appearance - "amid rave reviews" - at the 2003 Cheltenham Festival that saw Bryan breaking onto the UK jazz and dance scenes.

The Cheltenham gigs will see Bryan performing original material from his forthcoming album, Off the Cuff, which features "some electronic, computer-based jazz".

As well as playing with his own quartet, Bryan has also been touring over the past year with Us3, a jazz/hip-hop outfit credited with bringing jazz to a younger audience.

Having chosen music over sport, Bryan is convinced it was the right decision: "It's absolutely fantastic," he says. "I'm not a rich man but I'm doing what I love and I count myself very fortunate."

The Bryan Corbett Quartet play Cheltenham Town Hall on Saturday, May 5, at noon. For booking information, call the box office on 01242 227979.