Herbie Hancock, Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin and Billy Hart, four members of the seminal sextet known as Mwandishi, all celebrate their 80th birthdays this year.

Coming together after Herbie Hancock left the ''second great'' Miles Davis Quintet, the band took the Swahili name Mwandishi, and from 1971-3 on such albums as Mwandishi, Sextant and Crossings fused a groundbreaking array of styles that spanned continents and introduced metre altering sounds to jazz traversing the acoustic and electronic.

What will 2020 mean for these four giants of jazz? Herbie Hancock is expected to release an album this year, which if confirmed will be his first in a decade.

As for Billy Hart he will be out on the road and, for the benefit of Amsterdam readers in particular, a club date at top Netherlands club Bimhuis is in the book for March. As for Bennie Maupin there is no sign of any touring activity for now however Eddie Henderson, above, will be in London performing with pianist Will Barry, bassist Arnie Somogyi and drummer Stephen Keogh at Pizza Express Jazz Club on 11 March.