FEW musicians wear their fame more lightly than Wayne Shorter.

Widely regarded as a demigod, and certainly the most influential jazz composer since Duke Ellington, he has lived a lifetime at the frontiers of modern music in the company of its iconic figures: John Coltrane, with whom he practised the saxophone; Art Blakey, for whom he musically directed the iconic Jazz Messengers; Miles Davis, for whose quintet he wrote some of the most significant and influential music in contemporary jazz; and Joe Zawinul, with whom he lead the all-conquering Weather Report group.

If Wayne Shorter never made another record, his place as one of the 20th century's greatest musical visionaries would be assured.

And yet, listening to him talk it is clear that the past is of little concern to the saxophonist from Newark, New Jersey. Now in his 70s, Shorter is a man very much in the present, childishly enthusiastic about the here and now, and oblivious to the breathless superlatives that follow him around.

"I don't think that way at all, " says Shorter, laughing. He laughs a lot. "Music is a way to perceive the purpose of life. Language is not enough. We have six billion people in the world, it seems like we should have six billion ways to communicate. I think if I was a taxi driver I would try to be the most original taxi driver."

Music came relatively late for the world's most original saxophonist. A fine art major at Newark Arts High School, where his love of science fiction earned him the nickname Mr Weird, he discovered a facility for music almost by accident, and was encouraged by his teachers to pursue it. He remembers how the school's instrumental director lit a spark one day in class.

"He held up three records and said they represented the three directions music was going to go.

The first one was Eva Sumac, the lady from Peru with the eightoctave range. Then he held up Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. And the last one he held up was Charlie Parker." Even today, that list could stand as a fair summation of Shorter's unique achievement as a musician, combining the ethereal, other-worldliness of Sumak, the passion and intensity of Stravinksy, and the glorious groove and endless invention of Parker. "He didn't hold up anything pop, " Shorter adds bluntly, as if further elaboration is unnecessary.

It was the third record in particular that drew the nerdy kid from New Jersey. "Jazz to me was out of the box. All the different kinds of music in the world . . . like pop, country, rhythm and blues, rap and hip hop . . . are like flowers in a big garden, and jazz is the bee that goes from flower to flower."

After a degree from New York University and a spell in the army, Shorter settled in New York and swiftly became a central figure on the hard bop scene that was developing out of Parker's legacy. In 1959, he joined the Jazz Messengers, the group that defined the hard bop style, and within a short period, had become the band's musical director and lead composer. He would stay with the drummer for four years, despite a constant flow of offers from other musicians, notably Miles Davis, who pursued Shorter relentlessly to join his group.

He remembers with glee one particular call from Davis, whose dark, menacing voice Shorter mimics with uncanny accuracy.

"I was at a rehearsal with the Messengers, and Art Blakey answered the phone! The whole band was in the room, and [the trumpeter] Lee Morgan was laughing and giggling and saying, 'What's Wayne going to do? What's Wayne going to do?'" Shorter held out until 1964, when he finally joined what many consider to be the most accomplished and influential small group in jazz history. With Shorter as its main composer, the Miles Davis quintet proceeded to tear up the rule book and in the space of four years, created a body of recordings that remains unrivalled in its ferocity, its beauty and its sheer originality.

By the time Shorter left, he had become one of the most influential composers in the history of jazz.

Fame and fortune followed. He adopted the soprano saxophone and made it his own, and with Zawinul he co-led Weather Report, conquering an audience far beyond the jazz world. He appeared on other celebrated records, like Steely Dan's Aja (1977) and Joni Mitchell's Mingus (1978). But somehow he never got round to forming the Wayne Shorter quartet.

It is a tribute to his modesty that it took until 2001, nearly 40 years after he first conceived the idea, for his quartet to become a reality. But when word got out that Shorter was picking up his tenor and playing acoustic music again, there was a hum of excitement in the jazz community. And with the release of Footprints Live (2002) it became obvious that Shorter had assembled a group that was approaching music in a very similar way to the famous Miles Davis group.

"Yeah, this one is doing it now too, " enthuses Shorter, as if he has nothing to do with it. "They all have their own bands, but we kind of refer to this one as the family, and they call me up and say, 'When is the family getting together again?'" The group that Shorter brings to Dublin on 19 April for the first in Note Production's high-profile Double Helix series includes pianist Danillo Perez, bassist John Pattitucci and drummer Brian Blade. All big names in their own right, it is a group that plays with abandon, freely ranging over the musical landscape and daring to take risks with their musical reputations. And as a result, they are followed around by the sort of critical praise that used to be reserved for the other groups Shorter has been part of.

Not that Wayne notices. He is already moved on to the next flower, apparently unaware that the rest of us are hanging on his every note.