S'Wonderful, S'marvellous / S'awful nice, S'paradise / S'where I want to be..."

These famous lyrics, from one of the many Gershwin songs I heard performed live at the recent Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival, distilled the essence of what is now easily the best weekend music festival in Northern Ireland.

I'll go further - for festive fun, congenial craic, excellent accommodation, brilliant organisation and heartwarming hospitality this was the equal of anything I've encountered anywhere in my 800,000 miles of global travel in search of excitement and entertainment.

Better still -- most of Londonderry's 147 separate gigs, and events listed in its beautifully-designed paperback-size programme were FREE. This, as regular readers know, is my favourite price. Even the top shows were just around £7. Compared with the £25+ I was charged for similar acts at Edinburgh JazzFest and the 50 Euros minimum at the Antibes Festival du Jazz, the Derry tickets were going for a song!

I have rarely enjoyed any festive occasion like Derry's - certainly not since I reached the Men's Finals of the Most Comical Wearer of Long Johns contest at the 1991 Cedar Springs Red Flannel Underwear Festival, when I was living in Michigan.

I know, I know - there's nothing worse than reading rave reviews of great gigs and special events AFTER they have happened.

However, my enthusiastic coverage of last month's Festival concentrates on local artistes, attractions and accommodations which you can enjoy anytime between now and May Bank Holiday 2008 when the amps get turned up for the Seventh Annual City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival. Do not miss that one, It'll be wild good, as they say hereabouts.

Heartland of hospitality

DERRY PEOPLE really know how to party. They also know how to look after visitors, play instruments, buy drinks and give their whole-hearted support to local entertainments.

I couldn't imagine Council-led events such as their Jazz Festival and their world-renowned Hallowe'en Street Party being so successful in any other town or city in this part of the world.

That's because almost every bar, restaurant and shopping mall is brought on-board as well as more obvious venues such as theatres and arts centres. Shops and galleries offer Jazz Weekend Discounts. The Guinness Jazz Trail, funded by Ireland's biggest sponsor, features more and more pubs and clubs every year. I counted FIFTY, from little holes-in-walls to the vast JD Wetherspoon's at the Diamond.

The whole city swings from before lunchtime to the wee small hours throughout the four days. On a dander round the regenerated Derry's Walls in the company of erudite and entertaining tour guide Carol Lynn Toland, I swear I felt the ancient stones tremble as a thousand-decibel blues band started blasting in a venue nearby.

Tireless work by a talented team is the key to such success. I saw Festival Organiser John Murray (former Manager of the Tower Museum) at all 17 of the gigs I attended, checking that everything was OK before whizzing off to the next venue.

"We are becoming a major player on the European jazz scene, thanks to the local passion for music of all kinds that our visitors find infectious. Artistes just love coming over here to play to such enthusiastic audiences in intimate venues," John told me.

Charming Claire Lundy, boss of the Council's brilliant Marketing and Communications team, was equally energetic and committed. I witnessed her doing everything from schmoozing the visiting Media and putting up Festival posters (although there was hardly a square inch of wall-space which wasn't already promoting it), to giving out free fire-proof cigarette butt containers featuring the Festival brand logo.

"This is our first no-smoking Festival, so we want smokers taking an interval break to dispose of their butts in these wee boxes rather than on the pavements of our beautiful city," Claire told me with a smile.

Now, that's what I call attention to detail.

(By the way, I purloined a few butt-boxes for the likes of the guys who spent a week painting my non-smoking house, throwing 317 smouldering fag-ends into my garden, not only setting fire to my shrubs but also singeing the fur of the bloody black cat that lies in ambush near our bird table.)

John Wilson: Ageless Drum Wizard

WHAT DO you call somebody who likes hanging out with musicians? A drummer. What do you call a drummer that all musicians like to hang out with? John Wilson.

Ireland's all-time greatest rock, blues and jazz drummer John Wilson hugged me like a long-lost brother after his typically immaculate performance with the sparkling Linley Hamilton Quartet at the Millennium Forum Studio. They were backing the amazingly mature-sounding English jazz singer Polly Gibbons ( just turned 23) at one of the Festival highlights.

It's been over a year since I'd met up with John. He annoys me by looking almost exactly the same as he did when I gave him his first-ever Press write-up after hearing him with The Misfits in Betty Staff's Ballroom in Belfast's Ann Street on a wet Wednesday in October, 1964.

He toured with the legendary Them when he was 16 - too young to get a work permit to play the Olympia Paris - and became famous with Taste before tiring of life on the road in the 70s. He has since become the most versatile, most sought-after, most admired session man and drum teacher in the business.

He astonishes me by announcing that his FIFTH grandchild is on the way and he's semi-retired. " What", sez I. "How can you be a retired grandad when you still look the bloody same as you do in that picture on the THEM AGAIN LP in my attic?!"

The secret of his eternal youth, it seems, is to limit himself to just one wee nip of Bushmills before bedtime. Alas, the same sobriety cannot be claimed by all the musicians he used to play with, including some survivors I cannot name because they may now be sober enough to sue...

Derry's musical mascot Gay McIntyre is also ageless. Now in his 70s, he played sensational alto sax at 11 gigs in four days, from lunchtime sessions at the Richmond Shopping Centre to late, late shows at the Festival Club in the City Hotel. I wonder how many times - 10,551? - he has performed the sax classic 'Satin Doll' since I first heard him do it at the Queen's Jazz Club in 1960? Surely worth an entry in the Guinness Trail Book of Records.

'Shorts' story with a happy ending

"I LEFT MY SHORTS in the City Hotel Derry" is hardly as romantic a lyric as 'I Left my Heart in San Francisco' but what happened to them gave me a Tony Bennett-style glow of appreciation.

After two delightful nights in what is surely one of the best-value city centre hotels in these Islands, I checked out of Room 618, a sumptuous corner suite with panoramas over both banks of the Foyle. I forgot my valuable ($10 in Wal-Mart) swimming shorts, left to dry after my last simmering session in the hotel's hot tub.

More than a week later I rang the City Hotel in despair as I packed for another assignment. 'No problem' was the response of Chiree, Claire, Sharon and all the other friendly Reception staff. Minutes later, Housekeeper Bernie Barr phoned to say that, thanks to their good Lost Property system, she was putting my cozzie in the post. She dismissed my offer to reimburse the postage, and the shorts arrived 'shortly' after, with a nice wee note. Exemplary customer care!

The City Hotel food is impressive, too. The buffet breakfast is based around the typical Ulster Fry theme, but I was delighted by the imagination shown in the preparation and presentation of our £20 Pre-Show Dinner. The Kinnego Bay Mussels and crispy Confit of Duck were particularly memorable.

Our next night was spent in the ever-reliable Beech Hill Country House Hotel, one of my wife's favourites since the time owner Patsy O'Kane discovered it was her birthday and gave her a surprise gift.

Beech Hill is in the great Irish country hotel tradition, beloved of President Clinton and every other VIP who ventures north-west. It's full of characterful furnishings and atmosphere, but with a modern cosmopolitan twist. This is most eloquently demonstrated in the food, which deserves a Michelin -star for its flair. At £30, our dinner of meticulously prepared dishes was better than many we have eaten worldwide at twice the price.

I always love its gardens, but have never seen them so ablaze with early summer colour - almost overpowering the view of the waterwheel and wildlife pond. No wonder it's one of the most popular wedding hotels around.

Fresh new look for ancient attractions

THE DERRY VISITOR and Convention Bureau has more and better attractions, events and amenities to promote than when I last breathed the Londonderry air just a couple of years ago. Here are some ideas - see www.derryvisitor.com for dozens of others:

Head for the TOWER MUSEUM, flagship of the Council's four museums,which has been transformed since I last visited. My genial guide Brendan McGowan proudly took me through all four levels of the new Armada Shipwreck exhibition telling the stirring tale of how local divers discovered the treasures of La Trinidad Valencera, wrecked nearby in 1588. Like the refurbished Story of Derry exhibition next door, leading-edge display techniques bring history alive for all ages.

Go for a dander around Ireland's only completely WALLED CITY, guided by experts like my friend Tommy Carlin. Tours are gratifingly well supported. The Walls provide one of the most intriguing mile-long walks in Europe. Where else in the world can you view political murals while sitting on a 17th C cannon? Or get a fresh perspective from the new OPEN TOP BUS. I bought delicious Springwell sheeps' milk cheese at the FARMERS MARKET. I loved it -- and ewe will too!

Take a relaxing FOYLE RIVER CRUISE to Culmore Bay or Greencastle in a surprisingly spacious vessel. The Jazz Cruise was one of the highlights of my Festival. I was fascinated to see where the Atlantic U-Boat fleet surrendered in 1945 and where the vast wartime US Naval Base was located. Some of the local lassies were reputed to wear special Derry Knickers - One Yank and they're Off!

Classy Siobhan is my Festival star

HIGHLIGHT of the Festival, for me, was the enchanting performance by my friend and favourite singer Siobhan Pettit and her band of polished professionals at the Waterside Theatre. What a classy, soulful songstress! What a satisfying combination of jazz standards and clever, humorous material like Dave Frishberg's 'My attorney, Bernie'! What a treat for lovers of quality entertainment!

We're lucky to have such an accomplished artiste abiding among us -- she lives in Belfast with her multi-talented husband and musical director, Rod Patterson. Alas, being a happily married woman, she was only being her typically nice self when she signed a poster to me: "To John, my one and only."

Check out www.siobhanpettit.com for her upcoming gigs. In the meantime, go out and buy 'Long Ago Tomorrow' -- her celebration of Burt Bacharach songs that is always on top of my CD stack.