Londoners are summering at home and buying British.

That’s how mission control at Ronnie Scott’s interprets the resounding success of BritJazz09, a patriotic fortnight conceived, it can be revealed, as “a bit of a gimmick for a quiet time of the year”.

To general delight and amazement there were full houses throughout, even for abstract sax maestro Evan Parker and “post-jazz” spitfires Polar Bear.

Some of our heaviest hitters had been taking new paths.

On Friday multi-reedman Courtney Pine paid homage to New Orleans soprano-sax legend Sidney Bechet, playing flute and a full reed array including bass clarinet. Afro-Cuban flavours from violin virtuoso Omar Puente were a bonus.

Saturday found pianist Kit Downes’s trio exploring repetitive trance-grooves pioneered by Esbjorn Svensson, a departure from his explosive nights with Empirical.

Likewise, Scottish sax man Tommy Smith had shifted from Coltrane to the mellower orbit of Jan Garbarek.

His power-trio, with Italian drummer Paolo Vinccia and Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, covered everything from free-improv to Ellington, with laptop-triggered echo and ambient sound beneath.

Special mention should also go to urbane tenorist Iain Bellamy, in magisterial form on Thursday opposite Scott’s house pianist James Pearson, whose new trio album, Swing the Club, accurately describes what he has been doing these past three years.

His dazzling style encompasses Erroll Garner, JS Bach, Oscar Peterson, Dr John and almost anyone else.

BritJazz10 now looks a certainty.

Tonight and tomorrow: Sonny Fortune (020 7439 0747).