Erik Truffaz, who will perform in the city on January 19

Sweet memories of his last visit to Calcutta more than a decade back and a strong connect with the audience when he had played at Kala Mandir have prompted legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock to return to the city.

“Herbie Hancock insisted on including Calcutta after learning about his popularity here and also recalling the experience he had when he played in the city last time,” American Center director Douglas Kelly said on Wednesday at Dalhousie Institute (DI).

Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter will be visiting India from January 11 to 17 for performances supported by the United States Department of State and the American Center in New Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta.

The duo, backed by musicians from the US-based Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz, will perform in concert, hold classes involving young Indian musicians and engage in outreach activities to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The duo will perform at DI, Calcutta, on January 14 in a gig presented by Congo Square, American Center and DI. “They will not be able to hold workshops here for lack of time,” said Kelly.

The Congo Square JazzFest 2007 kicks off on Friday the 19th with a feast of contemporary jazz and fusion music. The biggest draw at the festival will be the Erik Truffaz Quartet from France presented by the French Embassy in India and The Alliance Francaise (The French Association here).

The quartet will be touring India and Sri Lanka from January 16 to February 7 and will hold a workshop with local musicians in Calcutta on January 18.

Truffaz is interested in meeting Indian musicians and he even wants to come back to India for a month or two to compose more music, said the organisers.

so lined up are performances by Autorickshaw, an Indo-jazz fusion ensemble from Canada on January 20. With vocalist Suba Sankaran, tabla player Ed Hanley, bassist Rich Brown and percussionist Debashis Sinha, Autorickshaw blends traditional Indian classical music with jazz and other contemporary forms of music.

so set for the same day is a performance by the Cornelio Tutu Band from Hungary that mainly plays Latin funk.

The third day of the jazz festival starts with an impromptu jam session by all the musicians present.

This will be followed by a performance by Judy Lewis and Orr Didi Project, “a beautiful combination of acoustic piano and guitar”, with 17-year-old virtuoso guitarist Orr Didi and Judy Lewis on piano.

Up next will be Three Raags, a jazz trio, with Steve Rudolph, merging a diverse melange of musical and cultural backgrounds but united in their passion for jazz.

The Scott Kinsey Group, a leading fusion group today, featuring Scott Kinsey (keyboards), Matthew Garrison (bass), Seamus Blake (saxophones) and Gary Novak (drums), will perform on the closing day of the jazz festival.

Tickets for JazzFest 2007, priced at Rs 125 for a day, will be available at DI, Planet M and Anandamela.

Students can buy their tickets for Rs 40 by showing photo-identity cards on the day of the concert at the club venue.