Herbie Hancock (top) and Wayne Shorter in performance. The duo will perform in Calcutta on January 14

It’s double delight for jazz lovers this January. The most influential living jazz pianist and seven-time Grammy winner Herbie Hancock will keep his tryst with Calcutta (as reported in GoodLife on November 25).

And now there’s more. The Watermelon Man will be joined on stage by Wayne Shorter, at the forefront of tenor saxophone modernists that emerged after John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, and “the idea man” behind Miles Davis’s fabled 1960s quintet.

The legendary duo will perform with members of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz on January 14 at Dalhousie Institute (6.30 pm, by invitation only). The concert is presented by Congo Square, DI and American Center, and will be followed by the Congo Square JazzFest at the same venue (January 19-22).

“It’s a rare treat since the two legends were in that iconic Miles Davis quintet, also featuring Ron Carter and Tony Williams, that changed the face of jazz forever. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch both Hancock and Shorter (a six-time Grammy winner) together,” declares a spokesperson for Congo Square, the non-profit support group for jazz and blues music in the city.

“Our club has always had a great tradition of jazz music and presenting Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter in concert is but a natural progression of that strong culture. They will perform on the same stage earlier graced by jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Chico Freeman,” DI vice-president Derek ’Brien tells GoodLife.

Hancock is the acclaimed composer of immortal tracks like Maiden Voyage, Watermelon Man and Cantaloupe Island, an Academy Award-winning soundtrack composer (’Round Midnight), and an inventor of classic R&B and hip-hop grooves (Chameleon and the chart-topping crossover hit Rockit).

ways innovative, Hancock has worked in jazz, fusion, soul-funk, disco and classical (at the age of 11, he performed Mozart’s D major piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), and has performed with artistes ranging from George Benson to Stan Getz and Quincy Jones.

Shorter, who carried forward the sprit of innovation after the Miles Davis Quintet, co-founding the fusion band Weather Report in 1970, is also the composer of milestone numbers like Speak No Evil, Infant Eyes, Witch Hunt, Penelope, Adams Apple and Footprints.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, a non-profit education organisation, was founded in 1986 by the Monk family along with the late Maria Fisher, an opera singer. Its mission is to offer the world’s most promising young musicians college-level training by America’s jazz masters and to present public school-based jazz education programmes for young people around the world.

At the Congo Square JazzFest 2007, the biggest draw would be the Erik Truffaz Quartet from France (presented by The French Association, January 19, 7 pm) — one of the most innovative jazz groups from Europe with Truffaz, a celebrated trumpet player and a Blue Note recording artist, at the front. Autorickshaw, an Indo-Jazz fusion ensemble, and the Cornelio Tutu Band from Hungary will perform on January 20; Judy Lewis & Orr Didi Project and the Three Raags with Steve Rudolph are lined up for January 21.

The Scott Kinsey Group featuring Scott Kinsey (keyboards), Matthew Garrison (bass), Seamus Blake (saxophones) and Kirk Covington (drums), brings down the curtains on January 22. The leading fusion group won the Thelonious Monk award in 2002.